urdu resultive constructions (a comparative analysis of
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Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics Linguistics
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Urdu Resultive Constructions (A Comparative Analysis of Urdu Resultive Constructions (A Comparative Analysis of
Syntacto-Semantic and Pragmatic Properties of the Compound Syntacto-Semantic and Pragmatic Properties of the Compound
Verbs in Hindi-Urdu) Verbs in Hindi-Urdu)
Razia A. Husain University of Kentucky, [email protected]
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REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE
The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on
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Razia A. Husain, Student
Dr. Gregory T. Stump, Major Professor
Dr. Gregory T. Stump, Director of Graduate Studies
URDU RESULTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
(A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTO-SEMANTIC AND
PRAGMATIC PROPERTIES
OF THE COMPOUND VERBS IN HINDI-URDU)
THESIS
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics
in the College of Arts and Sciences
at the University of Kentucky
By
Razia Husain
Lexington, Kentucky
Director: Dr. Gregory T. Stump, Professor of Linguistics
Lexington, Kentucky
2015
Copyright© Razia Husain 2015
ABSTRACT
URDU RESULTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
(A Comparative Analysis of Syntacto-Semantic and Pragmatic Properties
of the Compound Verbs in Hindi-Urdu)
Among Urdu’s many verb+verb constructions, this thesis focuses on those
constructions, which combine the stem of a main content verb with another inflected verb
which is used in a semantically bleached sense. Prior work on these constructions has
been focused on their structural make-up and syntactic behavior in various environments.
While there is consensus among scholars (Butt 1995, Hook 1977, Carnikova 1989,
Porizka 2000 et al.) that these stem+verb constructions encode aspectual information, to
date no clear theory has been put forward to explain the nature of their aspectual
contribution. In short, we do not have a clear idea why these constructions are used
instead of simple verbs. This work is an attempt to understand the precise function of
these constructions. I propose that simple verbs (henceforth SV) in Urdu deal only with
the action of the verb whereas (regardless of the semantic information contributed by the
second inflected verb,1) the stem+verb constructions essentially deal with the action of
the verb as well as the state of affairs resulting from this action. The event represented by
these constructions is essentially a telic event as defined by Comrie (1976), whose
resultant state is highlighted from the use of these constructions. The attention of the
listener is then shifted to the result of this telic event, whose salience in the discourse is
responsible for various interpretations of the event; hence my term ‘resultive
construction’ (henceforth RC). When these constructions are made using the four special
verbs (rah ‘stay’, sak ‘can’, paa ‘manage’ and cuk ‘finish’), the product is not resultive.
Each of these verbs behaves differently and is somewhere between a resultive and an
auxiliary verb construction.
This work can be extended to other verb-verb construction in Urdu and other
related and non-related languages as well. The analysis of the precise function of the RCs
can also help in developing a model for them in various functional grammars. The
proposed properties of RCs can be utilized in the semantic analysis of the Urdu
quantifiers. This work should aid in identification and explanation of constructions in
other languages, particularly those that are non-negatable under normal contexts.
Keywords: Hindi-Urdu compound verbs, complex predicates, telic events, non-negatable
verbs, light verbs, verb-verb constructions, resultative constructions, factitive
constructions
Razia Husain
June 22, 2015
1 All second inflected verbs with the exception of four special verbs rah ‘stay’, sak ‘can’, paa ‘manage’ and
cuk ‘finish’. These four special verbs are either auxiliaries or modals as identified in prior literature.
STUDENT AGREEMENT:
I certify that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper
attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible
for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written
permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be
included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the
fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File.
I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-
exclusive, and royalty free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in
part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned
above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo
applies.
I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the
right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I
understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work.
REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE
The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s
advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies
(DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the
student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The
undersigned agree to abide by the statements above.
Razia Husain, Student
Dr. Gregory T. Stump, Director of Thesis
Dr. Gregory T. Stump, Director of Graduate Studies
i
URDU RESULTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
(A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTO-SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC
PROPERTIES
OF THE COMPOUND VERBS IN HINDI-URDU)
By
Razia Husain
Dr. Gregory T. Stump
Director of Thesis
Gregory T. Stump
Director of Graduate
Studies
June 8, 2015
ii
DEDICATION
To my parents,
Zubeida and Dr. Syed Sabir Ali
And
The people of Northern Sub-continent
who speak the multitude of Hindi-Urdu dialects.
.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have been accomplished without the help and insight I
received from a number of people both in and outside of the country. I had long
productive pre-discussions with Dr. Stump without which narrowing down my topic and
finding my way through the maze of linguistics analysis would have been impossible. He
provided detailed comments on every section of this document and helped expand my
perspectives on various issues I struggled with at every stage of the thesis. Dr. Fabiola
Henri, my second committee member was an invaluable resource for all things syntax.
Her discerning advice was crucial for the analysis needed for this thesis. In addition to
dedicating her time and expertise, she was also a welcome resource for books on the
subjects. The third member of my committee, Dr. Edward (Rusty) Barrett, contributed his
insight on semantic and discourse analysis of these constructions. In addition to my
committee members mentioned above, it would be amiss of me if I did not mention Dr.
Mark Lauersdorf, who was my constant source of direction and encouragement. I am
indebted to the, often very long, productive conversations on various topics that are
discussed in this thesis; he not only provided a patient set of ears to my ramblings but
also posed insightful questions and gave constructive feedback, which helped in
developing the proposed function of resultive constructions in this thesis.
I am also grateful for the frustratingly long, but meaningful exchange of ideas
with my sister Fauzia Ali who was my sounding board and my rock, all rolled in one. She
was also my confirmation resource on Urdu language and was ever available for an
intellectually charged conversation, day or night. My roommate and colleague Sedigheh
Moradi also gave me great moral support and constructive feedback on this thesis.
In addition to face-to-face conversations and help, I received long-distance
support and help both in terms of reference literature and theoretical discussions. Dr.
Peter Hook, retired professor from University of Virginia introduced me to past work on
Hindi-Urdu compound verbs not readily found through normal searches, and Dr. Rauf
Parekh, Professor from Karachi University who recommended some excellent works on
the subject in Urdu language.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement I received
from my husband, Tauhid Husain, who encouraged me to pursue linguistics as my second
career.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………. iii
List of Tables……………………………………………………………….. vi
List of Abbreviation………………………………………………………… vii
Chapter 1- Introduction……………………………………………………... 1
1.1 Background……………………………………………………… 3
1.2 Objective………………………………………………………… 9
1.3 Scope and Conventions.………………………………………… 10
1.4 Methodology………….………………………………………… 11
1.5 Outline...………………………………………………………… 12
Chapter 2- Literature Review……………………………………………….. 14
2.1 Discussion on Aspect in Prior Literature…………..…………… 15
2.2 Miriam Butt's View on the Function of [Vsv] Constructions…… 17
2.3 Asif Agha’s Views on [Vsv] Constructions .…………………… 23
2.4 Carnikova's 'Attention-to-Result' Theory Regarding the Function
of [Vsv] Constructions ……………………………………..…… 26
2.5 Hook’s Views on the Function of [Vsv] Constructions………… 30
Chapter 3- Theoretical Analysis……………………………………………. 33
3.1 Theoretical Analysis..…………………………………………... 33
3.2 Proposed Properties of the RCs……………….……...………… 52
3.3 Difference between the RCs and Cross-Linguistically similar
Verbal Constructions…………………………….……………… 54
Chapter 4- Data Analysis…………………………………………………… 55
4.1 Stem+verb Constructions other than [Vsv]….……………..…… 56
4.2 Identifying the Non-Resultive [Vsv] Constructions ………….… 58
4.3 A Discussion on the Behavior of the Non-Resultive [Vsv]
Constructions in Various Environments………………………... 65
4.4 Explanation of the Behavior of RCs in Various Environments… 70
Chapter 5- Conclusion………………………………………………………. 94
5.1 Summary and Conclusion……………….……………………… 94
5.2 Recommendations for Further Study…………………………… 96
v
Appendix A…………………………………………………………………. 98
Appendix B…………………………………………………………………. 101
References and Bibliography…...…………………………………………... 102
Vita………………………………………………………………………….. 107
vi
LIST OF TABLES:
Table 1.1……………………………………………………………………. 4
Table 2.1……………………………………………………………………. 17
vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS:
1 First Person
2 Second Person
ACC Accusative
CP Complement Phrase
DAT Dative
EMPH Emphasis Marker
ERG Ergative
F Female
FUT Future
GEN Genitive
GNR Generalized Verb Meaning
IPFV Imperfective
M Male
NEG Negative Particle
NP Noun Phrase
PFV Perfective
PL Plural
PP Prepositional Phrase
PRS Present Tense
PST Past Tense
OBL Oblique Case
RC Resultive Construction
SBJV Subjunctive Mood
SG Singular
SV Simple Verb
V Verb
v Verb used in semantically light sense
VP Verb Phrase
Vs Uninflected Verb Stem
1
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION:
ء قاصد سے سبک گام عملعشق فرمودہ
مہ اقبال( عقل سمجھی ہی نہیں معنیء پیغام ابھی )علا
“Devotion swiftly acts under the messenger’s behest,
Intellect has not interpreted the message, yet!” (Allama Iqbal)
________________________
Let us look at a sentence in Urdu-Hindi:
(1:1)
کھا لیا نے آم کھایا / ہ ط taahaa=ne aam khaa-yaa / khaa li-yaa
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG eat- PFV.M.SG / eat take-PFV.M.SG
' 'Taha ate/ate up (a/the) mango. '
The first part of the sentence uses a simple verb khaanaa 'eat', which can
optionally be replaced by a complex verb construction khaa lenaa 'eat take'. In the
literature, there has not yet been an adequate explanation of what is the exact function of
this 'eat take' verb. I have translated it loosely as the English verb-particle construction
‘ate up’ but this translation does not do justice to the actual function of these verbs. There
is a notion of 'completeness' (Agha 1994, Masica 2005) associated with the second verb
'take', as well as some semantic information modifying the main verb such as the fact that
the action was done for subject's benefit (Maulvi 1991, Schmidt 1999). However, these
notions do not explicitly describe or explain the function of this construction (as in the
2
reason for its use,) or its behavior in grammatical environments. For example, the 'eat
take' kind of verbs cannot be negated or used in the progressive aspect, or in certain
grammatical environments as demonstrated in the works of Hook (1977) and others. The
aim of this work is to make strides towards explaining the functions of these
constructions in the Urdu/Hindi language.
Terms such as ‘complex predicates’, ‘compound verbs’, ‘serial verbs’, ‘conjunct
verbs’, ‘auxiliary verb constructions’, ‘light verb constructions’, ‘periphrastic
constructions’ and ‘composite predicates’, among others, have been used in prior
literature to describe various kinds of verbs that are not simple in either form, meaning or
both. There is no good cross-linguistic definition for these terms and they are re-defined
in many works for local use. These non-simple verbs can be composed of a verbal
element combined with a non-verbal element such as a noun or an adverb, or they can be
composed of two or more verbs. If two or more verbs combine, they form verb+verb
constructions, which are a common occurrence in languages around the world (Anderson
2011).
3
1.1 BACKGROUND:
Urdu belongs to the family of Indo-Aryan languages. The verbs in Urdu are
synthetically inflected for three aspects (perfective, imperfective and infinitive), two
moods (imperative and subjunctive) and one tense (future tense.) The rest of the aspects,
tenses and moods are essentially expressed through constructions in which more than one
verb participates. A series of inflected verbs, thus, may be needed for tense, aspect and
mood (TAM) markings as well as voice. Such a verbal complex2 may consist of simple
inflected verbs or various X+V constructions (where X is any verbal or non-verbal
element) to create a dizzying array of possibilities (Mukherjee and Raina 2006). Sentence
(1:2) exemplifies this complexity.
(1:2)
تھا جا رہااس بات کا فیصلہ کرنے دیا
' This matter’s decision was being allowed to be made '
Butt and Ramchand (2001) have listed three verbs to be uncontroversially
established as auxiliary verbs in Urdu.3 For simplicity’s sake we can consider honaa 'to
be' as suppletive in the past tense so that there are only two uncontroversially established
auxiliaries in Urdu, honaa ‘to be’ and rahnaa ‘to stay’. The verb ‘to stay’ is a fully
functional and frequently used verb in its own right, but doubles as an auxiliary when it is
preceded by another main or content verb. A content verb is the verb that provides the
main semantic content for the action represented by the verbal complex. In example 1:2,
the content verb is ‘do’. The auxiliary verb ‘to be’ is the only verb in Urdu that inflects
for present and past tense and is therefore usually required to express these tenses. The
2 Not to be confused with ‘complex verb’ a term used in literature to mean non-simple verbs of various kinds. 3 The past tense of honaa ‘to be’ is thaa, which is derived from Sanskrit ‘stand’. Hence, either we can think
of honaa to have a suppletive past tense, or we can think of two separate verbs representing present tense
and past tense for the lexeme ‘to be’. In the former case, we will only have two auxiliary verbs in Urdu ‘be’
and ‘stay’ and in the latter case we will have three verbs ‘be’, ‘stand’ and ‘stay’.
is baat kaa faislaa kar-ne di-yaa jaa rah-aa thaa
This matter’s decision do-INF.OBL give-PFV.M.SG go stay-PFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG
Vinflected Vinflected Vstem Vinflected Vinflected
N + V V + V V + V
Verbal Complex
4
auxiliary verb constructions (also known as periphrastic constructions), thus occupy
majority of the cells in the present and past tenses of Urdu verb paradigm.
Urdu verbs can have up to four arguments (Rizvi et al. 2008.) The verb
morphology often suggests the valency of the verb. There are certain morphological rules
(Maulvi 1991) which can derive one form of the verb from other forms by adding or
modifying the vowels (and in some instances consonants as well). A partial list of verbs
and their forms are given in Table 1.1:
Verb
‘To X’
Intransitive
Unaccusative
Intransitive
Unergative
Transitive Causative-I
Causative-II Or
Assistive
Causative4
‘see’ dikhnaa dekhnaa dikhaanaa dikhvaanaa
‘open’ khulnaa kholnaa khulaanaa khulvaanaa
‘wash’ dhulnaa dhonaa dhulaanaa dhulvaanaa
‘mix’ milnaa milaanaa milvaanaa
‘laugh’ ha;nsnaa ha;nsaanaa ha;nsvaanaa
‘run’ bhaagnaa bhagaanaa bhagvaanaa
‘eat’ khaanaa khilaanaa khilvaanaa
‘listen’ sunnaa sunaanaa sunvaanaa
‘do’ karnaa karaanaa karvaanaa
Table 1.1
In Table 1.1, we see a pattern that unergatives do not have unaccusative or
transitive versions and unaccusatives do not have unergative versions. In the above table,
dikhnaa means ‘to get seen’, dekhnaa means ‘to see (something)’, dikhaanaa means ‘to
cause someone to see (to show something to someone)’ and dikhvaanaa means ‘to cause
someone to show something to someone’ and thus has four arguments. Typically, if a
verb has a transitive version, then its assistive causative version is a tetravalent verb. In
Urdu, passives are often created by using the unaccusative form of the verb, if that is not
4 Translated from ‘muta’addi bilvaastaa’ , متعدی بالواسطہ a term coined by Maulvi (1991)
5
available then a passivizer verb ‘go’ is used with its transitive form. If neither accusative
nor transitive form is available (such as in the case of unergatives) then either the
unergative or causative-I form is used with the passivizer ‘go’ in an oblique case. Notice
the verb milnaa ‘to get mixed’ does not have a transitive version even though it is an
unaccusative verb. In fact, the verb itself is used in a transitive sense ‘to meet’ as in ‘I get
mixed with someone’ can mean ‘I meet someone’ as well as ‘I look like someone’ (my
appearance is mixed with someone.)
(1:3)
سے ملتا ہے ہ ھانی ط haanii taahaa se mil-taa hai
Haani.M.SG Taha.M.SG with get.mix-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani meets (with) Taha’ –or–‘Haani looks like Taha '
Depending on the case of the object, milnaa can also mean ‘to be found’ as well
as ‘to meet’ as in example 1:4. Such oddities in verbal morphology cause problems in
case assignment of the external argument, as will be discussed in later chapters.
(1:4)
کو ملتا ہے ہ ھانی ط haanii taahaa=ko mil-taa hai
Haani.M.SG Taha=DAT get.mix-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani gets found by Taha (Taha finds Haani) ' –or– ' Haani meets Taha '
Urdu has a relatively free word order and, as long as constituents are properly
case marked, a lot of freedom is afforded in terms of moving the constituents around for
topicalization and stylistic use.
Among the many verb+verb constructions of Urdu, there is a particular type, in
which a bare stem of a verb combines with another inflected verb creating a stem+verb
construction. We can identify four main categories of these constructions based on the
semantic contents of the verbs involved:
6
1. CONSTRUCTIONS IN WHICH BOTH VERBS ARE USED WITH THEIR FULL SEMANTIC
CONTENT (HENCEFORTH NOTATED [VsV]):
This kind of combination of two verbs in succession, each used with its full
semantic content, represents a serial performance of actions represented by each
individual verb. According to Haspelmath (2015), a serial verb is "a monoclausal
construction consisting of multiple independent verbs with no element linking
them..." This is exactly the case with these [VsV] constructions in Urdu.
Typically, both verbs in this kind of construction share either the internal or the
external argument or both. The two verbs are not asyndetic coordinates because
there is only one event being described. Besides, in Urdu, asyndetic coordinates
of verbs require each verb to be inflected separately. In addition, any two verbs
can used in asyndetic coordination but only specific verbs are allowed to form
serial verbs. For our purposes, if both verbs in a stem+verb constructions are used
in their full semantic sense, we will consider them as serial verbs. An example of
a [VsV] construction is below:
(1:5)
اٹھ بیٹھا ھانیhaanii u.th be.th-aa
Haani.M.SG stand sit-PFV.M.SG
' Haani got up and sat down '
2. CONSTRUCTIONS IN WHICH BOTH VERBS ARE USED IN A SEMANTICALLY BLEACHED
SENSE (HENCEFORTH [vsv]):
In such constructions both verbs are not used in their full semantic sense, with vs
being essentially the bare stem jaa 'go' of the passivizer auxiliary verb. In a
normal verbal complex, a [vsv] construction is typically sandwiched between the
content verb being passivized and the tense auxiliary verb. An example of such
construction is as follows:
7
(1:6)
تھا جاچکایہ کام کیا ye kaam ki-yaa jaa cuk-aa thaa
This work.M.SG do-PFV.M.SG go finish-PFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG
' This work was completely done (in reference to a specific time) '
3. CONSTRUCTIONS IN WHICH FIRST VERB IS USED IN A SEMANTICALLY BLEACHED
SENSE AND THE SECOND VERB IS THE CONTENT VERB (HENCEFORTH [vsV]):
Such constructions are not very common, but do occur. In these constructions, the
content verb is the second inflected verb and the semantically bleached verb is
used in its stem form before the content verb. Such constructions have been
mentioned as 'reverse complex predicates' (Poornima & Koenig 2008) or
‘Homotactic constructions in reverse order’ (Hook 1977). An example is:
(1:7)
ا ہ ط دے مارانے ھانی کومکاtaahaa=ne haanii=ko mukkaa de maar-aa
Taha.M.SG=ERG Haani.M.SG=DAT punch.M.SG give hit-PFV.M.SG
' Taha punched Haani (forcefully) ' (lit: Taha hit a punch to Haani)
4. CONSTRUCTIONS IN WHICH THE FIRST VERB IS USED IN ITS FULL SEMANTIC SENSE,
HOWEVER, THE SECOND VERB IS USED IN A SEMANTICALLY BLEACHED SENSE
(HENCEFORTH NOTATED [Vsv]):
In Urdu, if the first verb in a stem+verb construction is used with its full semantic
content but the second (or third) verb is not, then the construction thus created is
not a straightforward coordination of two verbs. In a [Vsv] construction, most
verbs in Urdu can be used in the Vs position but only a handful of verbs can be
used as v. Among those handful of verbs is the established auxiliary rahnaa,
which can only be used in its perfective inflection in these constructions. Other
8
inflections of rahnaa are not used with bare stems of content verbs.5 An example
of such a construction is:
(1:8)
یرکھ دنے کتاب میز پر ہ ط taahaa=ne kitaab mez=par rakh d-ii
Taha.M.SG=ERG book.F.SG table=LOC put give-PFV.F.SG
' Taha put (a/the) book down on (a/the) table '
In the verb ‘put give’, the action is that of putting/placing and there is no giving
involved. This kind of stem+verb construction in which the first element, stem verb Vs,
retains its full semantic content, but the second verb v is used in a more semantically
'light' sense, will be the focus of this thesis. These [Vsv] constructions are a hallmark of
South Asian languages as established by Masica (2005.) There are many terms used in
prior literature for this second verb v such as ‘light verb’ (Butt 1995), ‘vector or auxiliary
verb’ (Hook 1977) and ‘emphatic verb’ (Carnikova 1989). A small sub-class of these v’s
are also sometimes referred to as modals (Bhatt et. al. 2011). The v's in a [Vsv]
construction can be intransitive (unaccusative or unergative) or transitive including
ditransitive but never causative6. I will use the notation ‘v’ (lower-case and italicized) for
this verb because it is used in a semantically bleached sense. I am doubtful whether this
verb should be given a functional name because, as will be discussed in later sections, the
verb in this position of a [Vsv] construction is not restricted to a single function nor do
verbs used in this position exhibit a common set of properties. For example, scholars
have identified at least four v’s, which are noted for their exceptional behavior in these
constructions: rah ‘stay’, sak ‘can’, paa ‘manage’ and cuk ‘finish’. The first one rah
(used only in perfective inflection) is the bonafide progressive auxiliary that every
scholar agrees on. The next two, sak and paa, are often called (ability) modals
5 Neither the imperative and infinitive inflection of rahnaa ‘stay’ nor any inflection of honaa ‘be’ (the only
other uncontroversial auxiliary verb) can be used as a v. 6 The first verb in a [Vsv] construction can be a causative but not the second verb. [VsV] constructions, on
the other hand, can have a causative as a second verb, for example maar bhagaayaa ‘hit, caused.to.run’.
More on this in Chapter 3.
9
(Carnikova 1989, Bhatt et. al. 2011). Some scholars have also included cuk in the list of
modals meaning ‘already’ (Bhatt et. al. 2011, Hook 1977).
All four kinds of stem+verb constructions are structurally identical; the internal
structure and semantic content of these constructions is not readily identified from their
syntactic form and therefore a language specific analysis is warranted to understand the
function of all four kinds of stem+verb constructions, especially the most frequently used
among them: the [Vsv] construction.
1.2 OBJECTIVE
The function of the [Vsv] constructions in Urdu language has not been adequately
explained in prior literature. At any given time, a speaker has a choice between a simple
verb and a [Vsv] construction; we have yet to understand what factors determine this
choice of the speaker for either using or avoiding these constructions. There have been
several attempts at categorizing v's used for these compound constructions based on their
semantic contribution or grammatical properties, but fewer attempts have been made to
understand their grammatical function. The objective of this thesis is two-folds:
To arrive at a set of properties of the [Vsv] constructions (except those, which use
the four special v’s); properties that can explain what [Vsv] constructions
accomplish in the grammar in terms of syntax, semantics, aspect and other
grammatical functions.
To explain the observed syntactic behavior and semantic and pragmatic notions of
the [Vsv] constructions in the light of the properties identified in previous step.
10
1.3 SCOPE AND CONVENTIONS:
Urdu has long been identified as a split-ergative language (Dixon 1979; Hale &
Keyser 1993) whose ergativity is associated with the perfective aspect and the transitivity
of the verb. Scholars disagree on the nature of the ergative constructions in Urdu-Hindi.
For example, some scholars have argued for the ergativity to be associated with volition
rather than transitivity (Padharipande & Kachru 1977). Although I am not convinced that
there is an ergative case in Urdu-Hindi, I have followed the existing trend of using
‘=ERG’ notation for the ‘=ne’ marked case, in order to avoid any confusion. Examples are
glossed morpheme-by-morpheme, where necessary but non-essential words and phrases
have been glossed in lesser detail. All glosses follow the Leipzig convention. Some case
clitics in Urdu are homophonous to the postpositions and I have differentiated them in my
glosses to the best of my knowledge, however this differentiation is not detrimental to our
understanding of the topic at hand.
For language data, I have used both Urdu script and a version of Velthuis Script
developed for Hindi that I have modified to include Urdu sounds. I prefer Velthuis to
ITRANS because it avoids the awkwardness of capital letters within words and is easier
on the eyes. Appendix A lists my modified version of Velthuis Script with their
appropriate sounds in IPA. In order to facilitate their recognition, all four kinds of
stem+verb constructions are bolded in both the Urdu script and the modified Velthuis
Script. In the third line of Leipzig gloss, bolded terms are used to show agreement
relationships. It is noteworthy that in Urdu-Hindi the verb normally agrees with the
subject, but if the subject is case-marked then it agrees with the accusative object NP7
(internal argument of the VP) as long as it is not case marked (dative object is
obligatorily marked). If all NPs are case marked, the verb agreement defaults to third
person masculine singular.
The translations, especially of [Vsv] constructions, are only approximate
translations because there are entailments and resultive aspect associated with these
7 This is one of the reasons Urdu is classified as split ergative because verbs in ‘=ne’ marked cases agree
with the direct object. However, the fact that it does not have to agree to any NP in the sentence when all
NPs are case marked, makes the case that this kind of alignment is not strictly ergative.
11
constructions, which are not easily translatable in English. However, whenever possible, I
have translated these constructions with a corresponding verb-particle construction of
English to differentiate them from simple verbs.
1.4 METHODOLOGY:
The first step towards figuring out the function of [Vsv] construction was to
formulate a comprehensive theory on the exact nature of [Vsv] constructions and their
precise function in a sentence. For this, strategically chosen sets of Urdu sentences were
compared. Each set had two identical sentences one with a simple verb and another with
a [Vsv] construction8. These sets were set in diverse contexts, and analyzed for their
semantic and aspectual differences through introspection and confirmed with native
speakers of Pakistani Urdu,9 to develop a set of criteria that can explain all the
complexities encountered during their analysis.
Once a set of properties was identified, and a comprehensive representation of the
function of the [Vsv] construction was developed, the second step was to test the newly
formed theory on a representative set of data to see if the four special v’s measured up to
all the established criteria for these constructions. These four special v’s were found to
either not possess any (in case of rah ‘stay’), or possess only a subset of the established
criteria. These four v’s were then compared with each other using a more specific data set
to understand their mutual differences and their properties were documented.
The final step was to explain and elaborate on the various environments reported
in other works and/or otherwise observed, in the light of the newly established criteria to
8 The four special v’s (rah, sak, paa and cuk) were not used for this data as they were anticipated to be
different from all other v’s. 9 There is no reason to believe that Indian Urdu is any different, but since I did not consult any Indian Urdu
speaker, I thought it necessary to qualify my statement. It should also be noted that my informants are
highly educated people who were expected to know the intricacies of language, also called ‘people of the
language’ (اہل زبان) in Urdu, though they are not linguists.
12
establish whether the established set of properties for these constructions is robust and
comprehensive enough to explain their observed traits in general.
1.5 OUTLINE:
This thesis is organized into five chapters. In Chapter 1, I have given a brief
overview of Urdu language and the kinds of verb+verb constructions that are the focus of
this thesis. Some background on Urdu verb morphology and case assignment is also
included. The first chapter also includes the scope and conventions used in the thesis and
its methodology and outline.
In Chapter 2, I discuss the past work on the grammatical function of the specific
stem+verb constructions notated as [Vsv]. In section 2.1, I give a brief overview of the
two ‘aspects’ employed in linguistics: the semantic aspect dealing with the telicity of an
event and the morpho-syntactic aspect dealing with the perfectivity/imperfectivity of a
verb. Sections 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 each present the views of individual scholars who
have worked on these constructions from their syntactic composition to their semantic
analysis.
Chapter 3 lays out the groundwork and analysis of theoretical approaches towards
understanding the grammatical function of the [Vsv] constructions. In section 3.1, I list
the observed behaviors of these functions collected from past literature as well as through
introspection. I traced each behavior to a corresponding property of these constructions,
which I tested on carefully selected data set. In section 3.2, I proposed five distinct
properties of these constructions, which represent the essence of my findings in section
3.1. Section 3.3 gives a brief comparison between these and other cross-linguistically
similar constructions.
In Chapter 4, I provide data to differentiate between the syntactic, semantic and
pragmatic properties of the stem+verb constructions and to explain their behavior in
13
various linguistic environments. In section 4.1, I highlighted the difference between [Vsv]
and [VsV] construction. In section 4.2, I analyzed data to demonstrate the non-resultive
nature of a subset of [Vsv] constructions. Section 4.3 is dedicated to a discussion on the
syntactic and semantic differences between each of these non-resultive [Vsv]
constructions. Section 4.4 occupies the bulk of this chapter and provides extensive
amount of data to give a detailed explanation of the function of RC in eleven
environments using the properties proposed in section 3.2.
A summary of the findings and possible topics for further study are summarized
in Chapter 5, which concludes this thesis.
14
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW
There is considerable amount of literature available for verbal constructions in
Urdu/Hindi. However there is little consensus among scholars on the syntactic and
semantic structure of [Vsv] constructions. Scholars do not agree on the function of these
constructions, though most agree that there is a sense of completion or perfective aspect
associated with these constructions. Part of the problem is that there are numerous kinds
of verb+verb constructions used in Urdu (for a sample list see Mukherjee and Raina
2006). Another issue is that there are structurally identical constructions whose internal
structures and semantic composition may differ vastly. The issue of form-identical
construction is compounded by the fact that case marking clitics and/or postpositions in
Urdu can be omitted (especially if the case-marked element has oblique morphology)
which causes constructions with non-case marked elements to look similar to the case-
marked elements. These problems will be discussed in detail later in this section.
The scholars agree that [Vsv] construction have aspectual information encoded in
them (Butt 1995; Carnikova 1989; Porizka 2000 et al.) The exact nature of their lexical
aspect, however, has not been proposed and there are many competing theories on the
subject. It is not clear whether all [Vsv] constructions have the same lexical aspect or
whether this information depends on the kind of verbs involved in the construction. If it
depends on verbs involved, it is not clearly known which property of the verb determines
the lexical aspect encoded in the construction: syntactic, semantic or both.
15
2.1 DISCUSSION ON GRAMMATICAL ASPECT IN PRIOR LITERATURE:
Comrie (1976) defines aspect, as “Aspects are different ways of viewing the
internal temporal constituency of a situation.” While ‘tense’ is related to time in relation
to another time (whether the time of speech or the time of reference of another event),
aspect is related to internal time or duration of an event. The ‘imperfective’ and
‘perfective’ aspects are frequently mentioned in the literature and refer to events that are
either viewed from within, having temporal constituency as in the case of former or are
viewed from outside, seen as ‘whole’ without internal temporal constituency as in the
case of latter (Comrie 1976). Telicity of an event, on the other hand, is not necessarily
connected to perfectivity (Borik and Reinhart 2004). An event or situation is considered
‘telic’ if its truth condition of the event is true only at a single interval; it is ‘atelic’ if
there are more than one intervals at which the truth conditions of the event hold true. In
other words, telic situations may have verbs in imperfective aspect and atelic situations
may have verbs in perfective aspect (Comrie 1976). This is certainly true in Urdu where
the perfective inflections on the verbs are used in simple past, perfect and other aspects
and imperfective inflections are used in progressive, habitual and related aspects. Simple
past events with perfective inflections can be used in atelic situations such as ‘he ran’ and
imperfective verb constructions can be used for telic situations as in the case of resultive
constructions used for iterative completed events. (See example 3:19b in Chapter 3.)
Vendler (1957) proposed four main classes of verbs in terms of their lexical
semantic aspect: ‘state’, ‘achievement’, ‘activity’ and ‘accomplishment’ to which Comrie
(1976) added the fifth one called ‘semelfactive’. Of these classes, verbs belonging to
achievement and accomplishment class are believed to have telic property. In his 1976
book, Comrie specifically differentiates between the concept of ‘telic verbs’ and ‘telic
situations’. According to Comrie, it is not fruitful to talk about telic or atelic verbs
because an atelic verb such as ‘singing’ becomes a telic situation when a song is sung,
because a song essentially has an end-point whereas the activity of singing conceptually
does not.
16
In her paper, Olsen (1994) uses privative feature [+dynamic], [+telic] and
[+durative] to talk about classes of lexical aspect, in which verbs marked for these
features may not be able to change their property in any situation but those not marked
can take on the unmarked features depending on the adjunct information and context.
When the ‘activity verb’ ‘to sing’, which is marked for [+durative] and [+dynamic] and
unmarked for ‘telic’ feature, is used with adjunct information ‘a song’, then the situation
‘singing a song’ can acquire [+telic] because ‘sing’ was unmarked for this feature.
However because ‘sing’ is marked for [+durative] it cannot be made to lose this feature
under any circumstances. Olsen, therefore, believes that verbs are either marked or
unmarked for features and unmarked features may be invoked at any time using
additional information or elements in the sentence.
Table 2.1 shows Olsen’s assignment of the three features in eight possible ways:
Aspectual Class Telic Dynamic Durative Examples
Accomplishment + + + Destroy
Achievement + + unmarked Notice, Win
Activity unmarked + + Run, Paint
State unmarked unmarked + Know, Have
Stage-level States + unmarked + Be Sick,
Semelfactive unmarked + unmarked Cough, Tap
Unattested + unmarked unmarked
Unattested unmarked unmarked unmarked
Table 2.1
As evident from the table, there were no verbs Olsen found which are only telic or
which have none of the three properties, hence she concludes that a verb should either be
[+dynamic] or [+durative] at a minimum, the only elements which are telic alone are non-
verbal elements such as nouns. Therefore an element marked for [+telic] alone and
unmarked for ‘durative’ and ‘dynamic’ feature may be “destination, end, goal” (Olsen
1994).
17
2.2 MIRIAM BUTT'S VIEW ON THE FUNCTION OF [Vsv] CONSTRUCTIONS:
The most recent and in-depth work on Urdu verb+verb constructions in Lexical
Function Grammar (LFG) framework is conducted by Miriam Butt who has written
extensively on the internal structure and semantic constraints of Urdu complex
predicates. Butt (1995) defines complex predicate as a construction having multiple
semantic heads but only one syntactic head. An important characteristic of a complex
predicate, according to Butt, is that the f-structure resembles that of a simple predicate
(1995, 2001, and 2010). She uses the term ‘light verb’ for the v in a [Vsv] construction
because it is used in its semantically ‘light’ sense. In her 1995 dissertation, Butt has
dubbed the [Vsv] construction as an “aspectual complex predicate” and has given a
complete analysis of its syntactic structure in an LFG framework. In her dissertation, Butt
has also proved, using movement, scrambling, coordination, control and anaphora, that
[Vsv] constructions are discontinuous syntactic units with two semantic heads but possess
a single argument structure.
Butt (1995) offers the following explanation for the aspectual use of these
constructions in the language: “Native speakers will insist that the action seems incomplete or
unsituated when only a simple verb is used.” In terms of the semantic contribution of the v,
to the [Vsv] construction, Butt (1995) quotes Hook (1991) that these v's “…express a
change in location or posture or an action that entails such a change.” Her main claim for
the [Vsv] constructions is that the v's are not aspectual auxiliaries but a syntactic class of
verbs in their own right (2001). She does not mention the special v's discussed in the
previous chapter so we do not know if she considers sak, paa and cuk as light verbs or
not, but it is clear that she considers rah to be a progressive auxiliary verb even though it
is used as v in a [Vsv] construction. She gives the following reasons for v's or ‘light verbs’
to be different from auxiliary verbs:
1. Light verbs change the argument of the [Vsv] constructions, whereas auxiliaries
do not.
2. Light verbs interact with the auxiliary verbs of the entire verbal paradigm, unlike
auxiliary verbs.
18
3. Light verbs can be reduplicated, whereas auxiliaries cannot.
4. The first stem verb can be topicalized when used with a light verb, but not when
used with an auxiliary verb.
5. Light verbs (v's) select for their verb stem (Vs); auxiliaries generally work with all
verb stems.
While it is quite possible that v's, as defined by Butt, are a separate syntactic class
and not aspect auxiliaries of some kind, her reasons for this claim are not backed by data.
It is important to evaluate these claims because they help us identify what is not a
function of a typical [Vsv] construction. As mentioned earlier, the only uncontroversial
auxiliary used as a v in a [Vsv] construction is the perfective inflection of rahnaa ‘to
stay’, so we will compare all the above claims against [Vsv] constructions involving
rahnaa. Let us start with her first claim.
Butt explains: “I show that the ‘light verbs’ in Aspectual Complex Predicates not
only contribute aspectual information in terms of inception and completion, but also
express whether or not a given action was performed volitionally.” In a table of
representative v's, she indicates that transitive v's select for ergative subjects and
intransitive v's select for nominative subjects in perfective aspects. However, she insists
that this selection of the external argument’s case is not based on transitivity of the v's,
instead it is “correlated with the semantic notions of conscious choice (volitionality) and
inception/completion” and that “a light verb selects not only for conscious choice, but
also for the aspectual factor of completion/inception.” To make her case she gives
examples of two light verbs .daal ‘put’(transitive) and pa.r ‘fall’(intransitive). She argues
that it is not the transitivity but the notion of a conscious choice associated with .daal that
selects for the ergative subject in perfective aspect. Similarly, according to her, it is not
the intransitivity of pa.r ‘fall’ verb that chooses a nominative subject but the fact that it
“contributes a meaning of suddenness and surprise (lack of control).”
There are several problems with this claim. First, not all intransitive v's express
lack of conscious choice, including Butt’s specific example of pa.r ‘fall’, yet they select
for nominative subject in perfective aspects (see example 2:3 and 2:4). Second, the
19
property of case selection does not seem to be associated with the predication of a [Vsv]
construction, but it is associated with all stem+verb constructions including [VsV] serial
verbs. Therefore, it is quite possible for it to be purely a syntactical property of the
construction rather than the semantics of its internal structure. For example, in the
following sentences, jaa ‘go’ and mar ‘die’ are intransitive verbs, which would have
selected a nominative case on their own, but they are used in a [VsV] serial verb
construction10 and thus take on an ergative subject because the second verb is transitive:
(2:1)
آج میں نے اسے نزدیک سے جا دیکھا ہے aaj mai;n=ne us=e nazdiik=se jaa dekh-aa hai
Today 1.SG=ERG 3.OBL.SG=DAT near=LOC go see-
PFV.MS.SG
be.PRS.SG
' Today I have gone and seen him/her up close (poet: Kafeel Aazar Amrohii) '
lit: Today, I, having gone (to him), have seen him up close.
(2:2)
نہ آیا نعش پر بھی وہ ستم گر ہم نے مر دیکھا na aa-yaa na’ash=par=bhii vo sitamgar ham=ne mar dekh-aa
NEG come-
PFV.M.SG
corpse=LOC=EMPH 3 tormentor 1.PL=ERG die see-
PFV.M.SG
' That tormentor did not even visit our corpse, we died and saw (that he didn’t come) ' (poet: Hasan Raza Barelvi)
Now let us look at the example of an intransitive v, pa.r 'fall'. Butt claims that
when pa.r is used as v, it contributes to the notion of inception of an involuntary action
and thus selects for a nominative subject. In fact, the semantic contribution of pa.r
depends on the context and Vs involved, and may be used for categorically volitional acts.
The famous first line of a couplet of Iqbal, a world-renowned Urdu poet, is the best
example for this use of pa.r:
10 The only way we can determine if a construction is [Vsv] or [VsV] is by examining its meaning. If the
meaning implies two distinct actions to denote a single event, the verb is a VsV serial verb, if it implies
only one action modified by the second verb, then it is a [Vsv] or [vsV] construction. In the given examples,
there are two distinct actions combining to form a single event so it is a [VsV] serial verb construction.
20
(2:3)
آتش نمرود میں عشقکود پڑا بے خطر be-.khatar kuud pa.r-aa aatish e nimruud me;n ishq
without:fear jump fall-PFV.M.SG Fire:of:Nimrod in Devotion.M.SG
' Fearlessly Devotion jumped into the fire of Nimrod. ' (poet: Iqbal)
Here the adverb ‘fearlessly’ confirms that kuud pa.raa ‘jump fall’ is in no way an
unconscious act. Constructions like gir-pa.rnaa 'to fall fall' are often used as involuntary
act of falling, after all few people fall on purpose. However, it can certainly be used for
volitional acts. In the following example, jaa kar ‘having gone’ confirms the volitionality
of the act of falling:
(2:4)
وہ باپ کے قدموں میں جا کر گر پڑا vo baap=ke qadmo;n par jaa kar gir pa.r-aa
3 father=GEN foot.PL on go having fall fall-PFV.M.SG
' He went and fell (on purpose) on (his) father’s feet (to ask for forgiveness) '
Lit: He, having gone to (his) father’s feet, fell on them.
However, pa.r is an intransitive verb in Urdu so its use as v necessitates the
selection of a nominative subject in perfective aspect. According to Mahajan (2011),
while transitive v's usually select for ergative subjects, they can occasionally select for
nominative subjects as well, but it is not possible for intransitive v's to select for ergative
subjects. This claim is backed by data and to the best of this author's knowledge, there are
no intransitive v's which select or even allow for ergative subject in perfective aspect
even in some exceptional cases. For example frequently used ditransitive v's le 'take' and
de 'give' mostly select for ergative subject, yet there are some constructions in which they
will either necessarily select, or optionally allow, for a nominative subject:
(2:5)
وہ وہاں سے کھسک لیا vo vahaa;n=se khisak li-yaa
3 there=LOC slide take-PFV.M.SG
' He slid away from there. '
21
(2:6)
ہم ہنس دیئے، ہم چپ رہے، منظور تھا پردہ ترا )ابن انشاء) ham ha;ns di-ye ham cup rah-e manzuur thaa
3.PL laugh give-PFV.M.PL 3.PL quiet stay-PFV.M.PL accept be.PST.M.SG
pardaa tiraa
veil.M.SG 2.GEN.M.SG
' We gave a laugh, we kept quiet, our wish was to keep your secret. ' (poet: Ibne Inshaa)
Thus, intransitive verbs in Urdu, assign the nominative case but transitive verbs
may not always assign an ergative case. This is evident from an intransitive
(unaccusative) verb milnaa ‘to get mixed’ mentioned in Chapter 1. This verb is
commonly used in a transitive sense ‘to meet’ and its internal argument is always a PP.
This verb selects for a nominative case in perfective aspects because it is an intransitive
verb regardless of its transitive-like meaning and the notion of a conscious choice.
Similarly, a transitive verb laanaa ‘to bring’, which is a grammaticalized form of a [VsV]
construction le aanaa or ‘take come’ (Kachru 1980), selects for a nominative case; even
though, synchronically, laanaa is clearly a transitive verb and even takes non-PP internal
arguments. Perhaps it remembers its past as a [VsV] construction from which it was
created and that construction selected for a nominative case because the second verb in
that construction, aanaa ‘to come’, was intransitive and therefore assigns nominative
case to its external argument. Interestingly, the verb laanaa is never used as a Vs in a
[Vsv] construction (though it is used in VsV constructions) in majority of Urdu dialects
perhaps because the root laa ‘bring’ is itself derived from a [Vsv] construction le + aa
‘take + come’ and there is a resistance to concatenate [Vsv] constructions in this manner.
In her second claim, Butt implies that [Vsv] constructions can be used in
progressive aspect; in fact, Butt even provides an example in her 2001 paper to show
such use. To the best of this author’s knowledge no dialect of Urdu, including the
standard dialect taught in Pakistan allows [Vsv] constructions with the progressive
auxiliary rahnaa. It is well-established (Carnikova 1989, Maulvi 1991 and Schmidt &
Kohistani 2008) that [Vsv] constructions cannot be used in a progressive aspect. Thus,
whether the v is auxiliary rahnaa or a light verb, [Vsv] constructions are not used across
the entire verbal paradigm.
22
The third claim on reduplication is also not a possibility in Urdu. A verb in Urdu
can be reduplicated to mean ‘do X or something like it’ (see examples 2:7-8). In [Vsv]
constructions, as well as [VsV] serial verbs, only the content verb Vs may be reduplicated,
if at all. The second verb of these constructions cannot be reduplicated under any
circumstances as evident in examples below:
(2:7a)
٭وہ کھا لیتی ویتی ہے *vo khaa le-tii~ve-tii hai
3 eat take-IMP.F.SG~GNR be.PRS.SG
=She eats (or does something like eating.) ' GNR٭ '
generalized
(2:7b)
وہ کھا وا لیتی ہے vo khaa~vaa le-tii hai
3 eat~ GNR take-IMP.F.SG be.PRS.SG
' She eats (or does something like eating.) ' GNR=
generalized
(2:8a)
٭وہ کھا رہی وہی ہے *vo khaa rah-ii~va-hii hai
3 eat stay-PRF.F.SG~ GNR be.PRS.SG
' *She is eating (or doing something like eating.) ' GNR=
generalized
(2:8b)
وہ کھا وا رہی ہے vo khaa~vaa rah-ii hai
3 eat~ GNR stay-PRF.F.SG be.PRS.SG
' She is eating (or doing something like eating.) ' GNR= generalized
The fourth claim that main verbs (the Vs in a [Vsv] construction) can be
topicalized away from light verbs but not from auxiliary verbs can be re-examined in the
light of the following data:
23
(2:9)
یہ کام کر تو وہ رہی ہے ye kaam kar=to vo rah-ii hai…
this work.M.SG do=EMPH 3 stay-
PFV.F.SG
be.PRS.SG
' doing, this work, she is (but…) '
(2:10)
یہ کام کر تو وہ لیتی ہے ye kaam kar=to vo le-tii hai…
this work.M.SG do=EMPH 3 take-IPFV.F.SG be.PRS.SG
' gets done, she, this work (but…) 11
We see that the verb kar and auxiliary rahii as well as light verb letii are separated
not just by an emphasis clitic to but also by the subject pronoun. In addition, there is no
difference in movement restriction of the verb stem Vs kar from its corresponding v,
whether it is a light verb letii in 2:10, or an auxiliary verb rahii in 2:9.
The last point made by Butt points to the fact that the auxiliary verb rahnaa can
be used with virtually all Vs’s but other v’s will likely select for a Vs based on aspectual
considerations and semantic properties of that verb. This brings us to the analysis
presented by Agha (1994) of about a hundred verbs, which he chose according to their
agentivity and durative and punctate aspectual properties
2.3 ASIF AGHA’S VIEWS ON [Vsv] CONSTRUCTIONS:
In his 1994 paper, Agha demonstrates the selectability of various Vs’s by the most
common representative v's. Based on his study of one hundred commonly used Urdu
verbs, the four special v’s rahnaa, cuknaa, saknaa and paanaa select virtually all Vs’s to
11 The verb ‘do take’ gives the notion that she has completely performed her portion of the work; hence, I
used ‘gets done’ as an approximate translation.
24
form a [Vsv] construction. However, another verb jaa ‘go’ was also found to match the
lack of selectivity demonstrated by the special four. Thus according to Butt’s fifth claim,
either jaanaa is not a ‘light verb’ or selectivity is not a property that all ‘light verbs’ must
possess. In addition to jaa, the verbs le and de also seem to be far less selective than the
rest of the verbs.
Based on his work with these constructions, Agha has concluded that v's are in
fact verb classifiers (v’s classify Vs verbs). He proposes that [Vsv] constructions have
scope over, and necessitates the existence of, both internal and external arguments and
are resultative in nature. According to Agha, v indexes the event represented by Vs such
that “...the event indexed by the v element of a CV12 construction can be understood
either as the indexical presupposition or as the indexical entailment of the event
represented by the Vs element.”
A [Vsv] construction does seem to have a scope over the entire proposition, as
Agha suggests. It is well established that v's affect the case marking of the external
argument, though the assignment does not follow a clean pattern of transitive v's
assigning ergative case in perfective aspect. The assignment of nominative case in
perfective aspect by intransitive v's is, however, a more definite rule as discussed before.
For Agha, though, the proof of this scope goes beyond case assignment. Examples in his
1994 paper are used to show that a quantifier (or lack of) on a subject NP necessarily
becomes more ‘definite’ or ‘specific’ when used in a sentence with [Vsv] constructions as
opposed to its simple Vs counterpart. A point we will revisit in Chapter 4.
Another point that Agha makes in his 1994 paper is that it is necessary for both
internal and external arguments of the verb to exist in physical world. He proves this by
giving examples using koi bhii…nahii;n ‘no one’ as a subject and kuch bhii…nahii;n
‘nothing’ as an object to prove that [Vsv] constructions cannot be used if any of the above
are used as external or internal arguments of the VP.
12 [Vsv] constructions are often called compound verbs or CV in prior literature.
25
Scholars have long observed (Hook 1977, Van Olphen 1970, Porizka 1967) that
[Vsv] constructions cannot be negated. Agha’s reason for this non-negatability of [Vsv]
construction is that “nonoccurrence of the predicated event pre-empts the question of its
indexical relation to other events” which is plausible because if v's are merely indexing
an event or state, it cannot index it if there is no event to index.
Unlike other v's, the four special v's can be freely negated. Agha does not explain
why cuk can be negated but his explanation for modals sak and paa is that the event
represented by them is negatable because the sense “someone has tried it” satisfies the
event to have taken place. In other words, ‘he could not do it’ is an acceptable sentence
with a [Vsv] construction for the verb, because before the event (doing it) was negated,
the event of trying it indeed occurred. If that were to be the case, then [Vsv] constructions
should be negatable when actual words ‘try’ is used but we find it not to be the case:
(2:11)
کرلیتاوہ کوشش نہیں کرتا/٭vo koshish nahii;n kar-taa / *kar le-taa
3 effort not do- IPFV.M.SG / *do take-IPFV.M.SG
' He does not try (lit: he does not do effort) '
Though his explanations on the various observed behaviors of [Vsv] construction
fall short of a fully explicable account, Agha makes valid points about the requirement
for the existence of both arguments of [Vsv] construction and their resultativity—a
property of [Vsv] construction that is explained by Carnikova in detail.
26
2.4 CARNIKOVA'S 'ATTENTION-TO-RESULT' THEORY REGARDING THE FUNCTION
OF [Vsv] CONSTRUCTIONS:
In her 1989 book, Carnikova has laid out the grammatical use of the Urdu verbal
paradigms in the indicative mood. With extensive examples from the literature, she has
proved that each of her identified paradigm cell is associated with a specific tense and
aspect (the mood being indicative.) In addition to the two well-established auxiliary verbs
honaa and rahnaa, she has identified three other auxiliary verbs jaanaa 'go', aanaa
‘come’ and karnaa 'do'. A sizeable portion of her book is dedicated to the grammatical
use of the [Vsv] constructions. Like Butt, Carnikova believes that the v's involved in these
constructions do contribute semantic information to the action represented by the stem
verb, but her claim is that this is not the main function of these constructions. According
to Carnikova, a speaker first decides whether the subject or object of the utterance is
important or whether the attention is on the result of the action performed. In the former
case, the speaker chooses a simple verb and in the latter case, he/she chooses a [Vsv]
construction. Hence, according to Carnikova a [Vsv] construction has two main functions
in the following order:
1. Shift the attention from the external and internal arguments of the VP to the result
of the action performed.
2. Add the semantic information of the manner, direction or inception etc. to the
content verb.
In the light of above claims, the attention in the following sentence is on the
subject and the simple verb 'eat' informs us of the character of the subject. 13:
(2:12)
کام کرتا ہے ہ ط taahaa kaam kar-taa hai
Taha.M.SG =ERG work.M.SG do-IMP.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha does work (Taha works.) '
13 Carnikova has dubbed this tense as haal faa’ilii حال فاعلی ‘subject present tense’
27
With a simple verb kartaa, Taha’s character is shown that he is a worker. If the
same sentence uses a [Vsv] construction, regardless of the semantic contribution of v, the
attention is diverted to the result of the action instead:
(2:13)
ہے کر لیتاکام ہ ط taahaa kaam kar le-taa hai
Taha.M.SG work.M.SG do take-IMP.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha does work (gets it done on each individual occasion.) '
In a sentence like 2:13, attention is not given to Taha, instead it is given to the
result of the work that he gets done. In a perfective context, we get similar results.
Sentence (2:14) reports a completed action that Taha ate a mango. In (2:15), however, the
[Vsv] construction shifts the attention on the result of a completed event of Taha’s having
eaten a mango.
(2:14)
نے آم کھایا ہ ط taahaa=ne aam khaa-yaa
Taha.M.SG =ERG mango.M.SG eat-PFV.M.SG
' Taha ate (a/the) mango. '
(2:15)
کھا لیانے آم ہ ط taahaa=ne aam khaa-li-yaa
Taha.M.SG =ERG mango.M.SG eat take-PFV.M.SG
' Taha ate up (a/the) mango. '
Sentences like 2:15 will often be translated by speakers as ‘Taha has eaten a
mango’ because of the notion of this ‘having eaten’ state. However, in reality Urdu has a
separate present perfect aspect for which hai (present tense of ‘to be’) is added to
sentences like 2:14 and 2:15.
It should be carefully noted that there is no reason to believe that simple
perfective past is somehow not a completed action. 2:14 does not mean that the action of
eating a mango was not completed or there is no mango in Taha's stomach. This is a
matter of attention shifting and not truth conditions of the sentence in terms of the
semantic values of the expressions making up the sentence. Thus, the difference between
28
the simple verb (SV) and a [Vsv] construction is not in the completeness of the action, but
the attention of the discourse.
A classic example for SV vs. RC use from literature quoted by Carnikova
(Carnikova 1989, pg 294) is:
(2:16)
ھا کہتے تھے ہ لیتےہکخود بھی کبھی کبھی " "تھے اور اچا .khud=bhii kabhii kabhii keh le-te the aur
Self=EMPH sometimes say take-IPFV.M.SG.FR be.PST.PL and
acchaa keh-te the
good say-IPFV.M.SG.FR be.PST.SG
' (He) himself used to sometime recite (poems) and recite them well. '
In the above example, the verb ‘say’ is used twice, once in an RC and the second
time as an SV. According to Carnikova, the RC is pointing to the verses of poems that the
subject recited (his verses were great) and the SV points to the character of the poet
himself (attention to the subject) that he could say brilliant verses.
Carnikova believes that a simple inflected verb (along with the tense auxiliary)
always pays attention to the subject. When the attention is diverted away from the
arguments of the VP, other verbs are used in addition to the inflected form of content
verb. The [Vsv] constructions are special kind of constructions that use the second verb
with the stem of the content verb (rather than its inflected form). Excluding rah, which
is a progressive auxiliary, Carnikova further subdivides these [Vsv] constructions into
three categories:
29
1. [Vsv] construction with all v's like .daal ‘put’, le ‘take’ and be.th ‘sit’ etc.
She excludes rah, cuk, sak and paa from this list. According to her, these
constructions divert the attention away from the subject.
2. [Vsv] constructions with sak and paa as v's. Such constructions show the
capability of the action. She thinks that the difference between sak and paa
is that when sak is used as v the capability of action is encoded in the second
verb alone, but in case of paa, this capability is encoded in the entire
construction. She also notes that paa constructions show that the action was
desired whereas sak is neutral to such desire.
3. [Vsv] constructions with cuk as the v. She disagrees with other scholars who
believe that cuk shows the completion of the work in its entirety. This makes
little sense to her, as she does not think that completion of work can be
shown incompletely. Since Urdu has many other tense/aspect combinations,
which can show the completion of an action such as simple past and past
perfect, she believes that the difference is that cuk focuses on the completion
of the action (result) as opposed to simply reporting it. She also notes that
typically the completion of an action that is represented by cuk, is associated
with a specific time or start of another action. 14
Carnikova delineates the function of [Vsv] constructions depending on the kind of
Vs used. According to her, if the content verb is a linking verb, then a simple verb (SV)
reports the nature of the action and its [Vsv] counterpart focuses on the effect of the
performed action. If the content verb is intransitive, its SV version focuses on the subject
whereas its [Vsv] counterpart focuses on the subject’s condition. If the content verb is
transitive, then its SV version shows the subject’s character in the light of action
performed and its [Vsv] counterpart causes the attention to shift to the result of the action
performed.
14 Compare her analysis to some scholars (Hook 1977 and Bhat 2011) who believe that cuk is also a modal.
30
Technically speaking compound verbs cannot have aspectual information and
aspectual auxiliary verbs should not add semantic information like compound verbs.
According to Carnikova, these [Vsv] constructions cannot be considered compound verbs
because they have aspectual information (shifting the attention to the result of the event),
which she dubs as ‘resultive aspect15’. In addition, these constructions cannot be
considered as aspect auxiliaries because they affect the manner of the content verb (such
as forcefulness or sudden inception.) or modify its semantic content. She concludes that
these constructions are, therefore, somewhere in between compound verbs and aspectual
auxiliaries and some v's used in these constructions might end up being auxiliary verbs in
the future. This sentiment is categorically rejected by some scholars such as Butt (2003)
and embraced by others like Hook, Porizka and Agha, who believe that the v's either
already are, or may end up being aspect auxiliaries. Porizka (2000) believes that one such
verb jaanaa ‘to go’ has already been fully grammaticalized and Agha (1994) believes
that the auxiliary rahnaa may have started its journey as a non-auxiliary v.
2.5 HOOK’S VIEW ON THE FUNCTION OF [Vsv] CONSTRUCTIONS:
In his 1977 work, Hook has published a detailed study of [Vsv] constructions, the
verbs involved in these constructions and their usage and behavior in various
environments. Hook has not analyzed the semantics and pragmatics involved in the
interpretation of these constructions in detail, instead he has demonstrated their use
through identifying the various environments that favor or discourage their use. He, none-
the-less, has presented the views of other scholars on the subject and expressed his
disagreement with some, based on the data he collected from several informants.
For historical perspective on the function of [Vsv] constructions, a sampling of
Hook’s collection of scholarly views on the function of the [Vsv] constructions is worth
15 My translation of her term natiije vaalii suurat (نتیجہ والی صورت ) meaning ‘aspect associated with
result’. Hence my term for these verbs: Resultive Verbs.
31
repeating. According to Hook, Van Olphen (1970) finds these constructions similar to
verb-particle constructions of English. Bahl (1974) believes that the second verb of the
construction does not modify the first verb, it only develops its lexical content but since
lexical content is not always known, its development is more elusive. Hook cites other
scholars with opinions ranging from the notion that these constructions are ‘intensive’, to
the notion that they ‘qualify’ the meaning of the content verb and add ‘definiteness’ to it
et cetera. Porizka (1970) believes that the ‘perfective’ inflection of the simple verbs, are
unmarked for aspect (hence are not perfective.) He believes that the function of [Vsv]
constructions is to give a perfective aspect to an otherwise aspectually unmarked simple
verb.
From the above brief account on the historical understanding of these
constructions, it is clear that most scholars are tiptoeing around a combination of aspect
and semantic information that is encoded in these constructions. The reason it is so
difficult to come up with a unifying theory for all [Vsv] constructions is that formal
linguistics tends to look at isolated sentences. There is very little difference between aam
khaayaa and aam khaa liyaa in contextual isolation. Indeed a native speaker may very
well say that second is more definite, which is exactly what we see being reported by
scholars over the years. However, the functions of individual constituents in a sentence
are not always limited to that sentence. The difference between the above two statements
is not that second is more definite but that the first sentence with simple verb is
‘reportive’ in nature and represents an action, whereas the verb in the second sentence
highlights the result of the event which has contextual salience in the discourse. The
reason we find so many interpretations for these constructions such as ‘definiteness’,
‘intensity’ and ‘clause final property’, ‘stylistic use’, among others, is because the context
of discourse is different in each example we come up with, and it is the discourse that
determines the meaning of the construction. The construction itself has a minimal
‘suggestive’ meaning and its salience in the discourse provides the rest of the meaning
associated with the construction.
Hook’s account of the ‘compound verbs’ is so detailed that if a theory of the
function of [Vsv] constructions can explain the behaviors of these constructions listed in
32
his work, then we can confidently say that it is on the right path to interpreting the
function of these constructions in Urdu. This will be precisely our goal in the Data
Analysis chapter.
33
CHAPTER 3 - THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
3.1 THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
In order to understand the function of [Vsv] in Urdu, a list of observations
regarding these constructions was assembled from existing literature. Thus, following
were generally found to be true for [Vsv] constructions:
1. There are four special v’s which are known to exhibit different properties and
are not part of the larger set of [Vsv] constructions.
2. There is an aspectual dimension associated with these constructions.
3. The addition of v modifies the semantic information of the verb Vs in some
manner.
4. There is a sense of ‘completeness’, ‘definiteness’, ‘finality’ and/or ‘intensity’
associated with these constructions.
5. The constructions cannot be used with progressive aspect (except for the four
special v’s).
6. The constructions cannot be negated (except in the case of the four special
v’s).
7. Internal arguments of these constructions acquire ‘specificity’ (they are either
previously known or become specific entities).
8. Some emphasis markers change their meaning when used with RCs.
9. RCs cannot be used with adverbs that hinder in certainty of the event
represented by these constructions.
34
10. The arguments of these constructions (subject/object) must exist in real world
(These constructions cannot be used with abstractions such as ‘no one’ or
‘nothing’ as their internal or external arguments.)
Observation 9 and 10 suggest the possibility that the event represented by RCs is
certain to have taken place because it resists any adverb that tries to as much as hint that
the event may not have taken place and requires physically existing players to create an
event and does not allow abstractions. The rest of the neatly listed observations above, do
not lend themselves to an equally systematic analysis. The observations are too random
and may be symptoms of a single property of these constructions. It is therefore best to
start the discussion and hack our way through the maze of competing ideas and concepts
in order to arrive at a somewhat cohesive set of properties for these constructions. In
order to facilitate our discussion, we will use the term ‘simple verbs’ or SV for inflected
forms of a single verb. Most SVs in Urdu can be used as the first verb Vs, in a [Vsv]
construction, which we will call ‘resultive construction’ or RC. RC will be used for all
[Vsv] constructions excluding those which use the four special v’s (rah, sak, paa and
cuk). The exclusion of the four special v’s will be evident in the next chapter when we
analyze the data to find out the difference between the [Vsv] constructions that use the
four special v’s and those that do not.
SIMILARITY OF RCS WITH ‘HAVING X’ED, Y’ EXPRESSIONS:
In order to understand the syntactic makeup of these constructions, we can
compare them with a frequently used expression in Urdu ‘having X’ed, Y’, where both X
and Y are verbs or verb constructions. For example ‘having eaten, rested’ or ‘having run,
is bringing rope’ etc. Such expressions are very common in Urdu and they use kar to
mean ‘having’ and aur to mean ‘and’ to establish temporal, causal or other relationship
between two actions in a sentence.
35
(3:1)
مار بھگایا ھانی نے کتاے کو
haanii=ne kutt-e=ko maar bhagaa-yaa
Haani.M.SG=ERG dog.M.SG-OBL=ACC hit cause.to.run-PFV.M.SG
' Haani hit (a/the) dog, caused it to run away. '
Here maar bhagaayaa is a serial verb and therefore a [VsV] construction because
there is a composite event comprising of hitting and subsequently causing the dog to
run.16 This composite event can be broken up in at least three different ways:
(3:2)
یا بھگا ھانی نے کتاے کو مار کر
haanii=ne kutt-e=ko maar kar bhagaa-yaa 17
Haani.M.SG=ERG dog.M.SG-OBL=ACC hit having cause.to.run-PFV.M.SG
' Haani, having hit (a/the) dog, caused it to run away. '
(3:3)
بھگایا ھانی نے کتاے کو مارا اور
haanii=ne kutt-e=ko maar-aa aur bhagaa-yaa
Haani.M.SG=ERG dog.M.SG-
OBL=ACC
hit-PFV.M.SG and cause.to.run-PFV.M.SG
' Haani hit (a/the) dog and caused it to run away. '
(3:4)
، بھگایاھانی نے کتاے کو مار
haanii=ne kutt-e=ko maar, bhagaa-yaa
Haani.M.SG=ERG dog.M.SG-OBL=ACC hit cause.to.run-PFV.M.SG
' Haani, hitting (a/the) dog, caused it to run away. '18
Even though 3:1 is similar in meaning to sentences 3:2-4, there is an important
difference between them. 3:1 uses a serial verb and represents a composite event,
whereas 3:2-4 is a simple coordination, (syndetic or asyndetic), and does not carry all the
nuances associated with the use of serial verb ‘hit cause.to.run’. In fact, the true
16 It should be noted that [VsV] version is a single event, which has the notion of a completed action and
there are only limited pairs of verbs used in this fashion. The broken up versions, on the other hand, are
syndetic or asyndectic coordinates and there is no restriction on the pairing of verbs for these coordinations. 17 For details on the derivation rules of ‘kar deletion/insertion’ see Hook (1974). 18 There is a pause after maar, expressed by the placement of the comma. This form is mostly used in
spoken language only and may be considered archaic by most speakers.
36
translation of 3:1 can only be achieved with a [Vsv] construction used for ‘cause.to.run’
as in ‘cause.to.run give’ in sentences 3:2-4. This is because a [VsV] construction has
similar notions of completeness as do [Vsv] constructions and sentences 3:2-4 which use
SV ‘cause.to.run’ do not convey the same sense of completion.
For reasons that will be clear by the end of this chapter, I propose that
diachronically all stem+verb constructions have been derived from expressions similar to
the ones used in sentences 3:2-4. First, it is common in Urdu to omit kar and even aur in
spoken versions of the language. In fact, 3:4 does not use any linking particle between the
two clauses and uses a pause instead. As for the conceptual leap to consider stem+verb
constructions as grammaticalized versions these expressions, it is not as far fetched as it
may appear. Many of the v’s used in a [Vsv] construction have synchronic idiomatic
meanings. An utterance such as lu.taa kar be.th jaanaa ‘having lost, sitting down’ in
modern day language can mean someone loses (something) and then does not know what
to do. ‘Sitting down’ gives the impression that the act of losing was not something
planned and the person is at a loss (no pun intended) after losing their belonging. The
interpretation of RC lu.taa be.thnaa ‘to lose sit’ (to lose something unplanned, inevitably
or end up losing something) is not too far from the interpretation of the expression lu.taa
kar be.th jaanaa 19 ‘having lost (something), sitting down’. Let us study the syntacto-
semantic composition of RC based on this proposal.
SYNTACTO- SEMANTIC COMPOSITION OF RCS:
Several options for the syntactic composition of an RC have been proposed by
Mahajan (2012) which has its theoretical challenges. The biggest problem faced in his
analysis is that when the ‘content verb’ Vs is transitive how does it allow its intransitive v
to control the case of the external argument? Taking into account the uncanny
resemblance of RCs with ‘having X’ed, Y’ expression, I propose that there are two
simultaneous functions of these verbs in a complex construction and it may not be
possible to sum up their individual functions to represent their syntacto-semantic
19 The kar gets no stress and is sometimes changed to ke.
37
composition. A purely syntactic composition of these constructions is not possible
without consulting its semantic properties.
For example, syntactically speaking, the content verb of an RC is the second verb
v, similar to Y in the ‘having X’ed, Y’ expression. However, semantically speaking, the
content verb of an RC is Vs, which corresponds to the pre-verbal state ‘X’ of this
expression. Thus, one way to visualize this complex event is to think of RCs as operating
at the boundary of syntax and semantics such that each verb has a syntactic and semantic
role to play in the construction. The event denoted by RC is an outcome of the complex
interplay between these roles. In such an event, there is a conflict in the role of Vs whose
syntactic role as a pre-verbal state of the action conflicts with its semantic role as the
main action itself. The result is that RC attempts to denote an action of Vs as well as the
state of having done Vs. This conflict is resolved by a reinterpretation of the event in
which RC denotes the action of Vs (whose manner is modified by v,) but focuses on the
resultant state of this action. The semantic role of v is compromised, but it does not
conflict with its syntactic role. It is still the main syntactic verb (similar to its function in
the ‘having X’ed, Y’ expression,) only its semantic content is slightly reduced (but not
eliminated). Thus, whether it is a [VsV] construction or a resultive [Vsv] construction,
their syntactic composition is quite the same and the only difference is in the semantic
content of the second verb.
Carnikova’s explanation of the meaning of RCs backs this analysis. According to
her, a transitive verb expression such as ‘give necklace’ in SV only deals with the action
of giving but the RC version ‘give give necklace’ deals with the action of giving as well
as the fact that the receiver has physically possessed the necklace. For an intransitive
verb expression ‘when she comes’ in SV only deals with the act of her coming, but the
RC version ‘when she come goes’ means both that she will perform the act of coming as
well as the fact that she will physically be present (after having come). The most telling
evidence comes from the verb huaa ‘be (or turn into)’. In an example from literature,
Carnikova explains that a sentence such as ‘when Kho came back, it had turned dark’,
must use RC ho gayaa “be go” if the speaker intends to say that darkness was present or
it was dark out. Using a simple SV in such a sentence will be, in the words of Butt
38
(1995), “unsituated” because it will not be clear that even though ‘it had turned dark’ but
was it indeed dark out or not. This “unsituated” feeling is due to the absence of resulting
state, which is highlighted when an RC is used. An expression such as ‘darkness spread’
in SV means darkness performed the act of spreading, whereas the same expression in
RC means darkness performed the act of spreading and as a result, it was dark all around.
Based on this analysis, it is easy to see why RCs cannot be negated or used in
progressive aspect. Because the resulting state is highlighted with the use of RC, there is
always an implied event when RCs are used. In English, if we choose to say ‘having
reached under, pull the lever’, we can either say ‘not having reached under, pull the lever’
or ‘having reached under, do not pull the lever’. Because of our choice of using a stative
expression ‘having reached under’, we cannot manipulate this sentence to say ‘do
nothing’. To negate all actions, we will have to convert the ‘state’ into a verb and negate
both verbs separately: ‘do not reach under and do not pull the lever’. The same is true for
RCs in Urdu. We will discuss RCs and negation in detail, later in this chapter.
This analysis is also compatible with the fact that RCs cannot be used in the
progressive continuous aspects. The state-like reading of RCs prevents them to be seen as
an imperfective event with temporal stages. These constructions can be freely used in the
iterative or habitual iterative aspects because each individual event has the provision to
produce a resultant state. A detailed discussion on the incompatibility of RCs with
progressive aspect follows later in this chapter.
RC’S AND NEGATION:
In Urdu, an expression ‘having X’ed, Y’ can be negated in three ways, ‘[without
X’ing], Y’ (3:5), ‘not [having X’ed], Y’ (3:6) and ‘having X’ed, did not[Y]’(3:7), but it is
generally not possible to say ‘having not [X’ed], Y’ (3:8) or ‘not [having X’ed], did not
[Y]’ (3:9) or ‘not [having X’ed, Y]’ (3:10).
Let us take the example of two separate actions, ‘listening to someone’ and
‘running’. Following examples attempt to negate these actions expressed in a ‘having
X’ed, Y’ expression:
39
(3:5)
سارہ میری بات سنے بغیر بھاگی
saaraa mer-ii baat sune ba.ghair bhaag-ii
Sarah.F.SG 1.GEN-F.SG word without:hearing run-PFV.F.SG
' Sarah ran without hearing what I said. '
(3:6)
سارہ میری بات سن کر نہیں بھاگی saaraa mer-ii baat sun=kar nahii;n bhaag-ii
Sarah.F.SG 1.GEN-F.SG word having heard not run-PFV.F.SG
' Sarah ran, not having heard what I said. '20
(3:7)
سارہ میری بات سن کر بھاگی نہیں saaraa mer-ii baat sun=kar bhaag-ii nahii;n
Sarah.F.SG 1.GEN-F.SG word.F.SG having heard run-PFV.F.SG not
' Having heard what I said, Sarah did not run. '
(3:8)
بات سن نہیں کر بھاگی سارہ میری * *saaraa mer-ii baat sun nahii;n=kar bhaag-ii
Sarah.F.SG 1.GEN-F.SG word.F.SG having not heard run-PFV.F.SG
' *Having not heard what I said, Sarah ran. '
(3:9)
*سارہ میری بات نہیں سن کر بھاگی *saaraa mer-ii baat nahii;n sun=kar bhaag-ii
Sarah.F.SG 1.GEN-F.SG word.F.SG not having heard run-PFV.F.SG
' *Having not heard what I said, Sarah ran. 21 '
20 In Urdu the negative particle nahii;n can scope forward and backward in many situations. This sentence
can have the same meaning as that of 3:7, but 3:7 cannot mean the same as 3:6. Either way only one action can be negated. 21 Similar to 3:6, nahii;n can scope over ‘what I said’ as well as ‘having heard’. In the former case sentence
is grammatical, and will mean that Sarah may have heard and ran but it was not what I said that she heard.
The given translation is for the latter case, which is ungrammatical. Either way, this interpretation does not
negate the entire event of ‘having heard, ran’.
40
(3:10)
*سارہ میری بات نہیں سن کر نہیں بھاگی *saaraa mer-ii baat nahii;n sun=kar
Sarah.F.SG 1.GEN-F.SG word.F.SG not having heard
nahii;n bhaag-ii
not run-PFV.F.SG
' *Having not heard what I said, Sarah did not run. '
Sentence 3:5 changes the ‘having X’ed’ part of the expression to ‘without X’ing’,
so it is not a true negation of the expression, but even then, it only negates the ‘having
heard’ state and not the verb running. Both 3:6 and 3:7 negate either the action ‘run’ or
the state ‘having heard’ described in the expression, but not both. Hence, in 3:6 Sarah
ran, but did not hear what was said and in 3:7 Sarah heard what was said, but did not run.
It is generally not possible to negate the entire composite event of ‘having X’ed, Y’. Also
note that whenever ‘not’ is outside of the ‘having X’ed, Y’ expression, it will scope over
the previous NP rather than the following expression as in 3:9 and 3:10.
If the RC constructions have any diachronic relationship with ‘having X’ed, Y’
constructions, they should similarly resist any negation of the entire event but will allow
for individual verbs in the construction to be negated. Let us examine some data to see
how negation works in a [Vsv] construction.
(3:11)
نے آم )نہیں( کھایا ہے ہ ط
taahaa=ne aam (nahii;n) khaa-yaa hai
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG (not) eat-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has (not) eaten (a/the) mango.22 '
22 If ‘Taha’ is stressed, then ‘not’ can scope over Taha to mean “it is not Taha who ate the mango”, but
without any stresses, ‘not’ will scope over the following verb ‘eat’ to mean that ‘the event of eating of a
mango by Taha has not occurred’
41
(3:12)
ہے کھا لیانے آم )٭نہیں( ہ ط
taahaa=ne aam (*nahii;n) khaa li-yaa hai
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG not eat take-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has (*not) eaten (a/the) mango.23 '
(3:13)
ہے لیا نگللیا، نہیں کھا نے آم ہ ط
taahaa=ne aam khaa nahii;n li-yaa,
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG eat not take-PFV.M.SG
nigal li-yaa hai
swallow take-
PFV M.SG
be.PRS.SG
' Taha has not eaten (a/the) mango, he has swallowed (it.) '
(3:14)
ہےلا ڈاکھا نہیں، لیا کھا نے آم ہ ط
taahaa=ne aam khaa li-yaa nahii;n,
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG eat take-PFV.M.SG not
khaa daal-aa hai
eat put-
PFV.M.SG
be.PRS.SG
' Taha has not eaten (a/the) mango (in the normal sense) he has deliberately eaten (it.) '
Sentences 3:12-14 imply that some event has indeed occurred, this implication
holds even if the second clause is not explicitly mentioned. Hence, RCs cannot be
negated in the sense that the negation cannot mean there is no event that occurred even if
the ‘only’ event in the sentence did not occur because there is always an implied event
occurring when an RC is used. We will revisit this property in the Data Analysis chapter,
where I show that the certainty of the event to have produced a result is also responsible
for discouraging the use of adverbs that interfere with the certainty of the result of the
event represented by an RC.
23 This sentence cannot mean that the event of Taha’s eating a mango has not occurred. However,
depending on whether ‘Taha’ or ‘mangos’ are stressed, this sentence can be interpreted as ‘it is not Taha
who has eaten a mango’ or ‘it is not the mango that Taha has eaten’ respectively. This obviously implies
that there is someone else who has eaten the mango, or Taha has eaten something else other than a mango.
42
RCS’ REQUIREMENT FOR PHYSICALLY EXISTING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS:
A corollary to this certainty of an event is that the RCs assert the existence of their
arguments, meaning they cannot be used for non-existent subjects or objects, as Agha
(1994) has mentioned. It may be because the resultant state of RC is a certainty and
cannot be achieved if either the subject or object is not physically participating24:
(3:15)
نے صفر کھاتے کھولے ہ ط
taahaa=ne sifar khaat-e khol-e
Taha.M.SG=ERG zero Accounts-M.SG open- PFV.M.PL
' Taha opened zero accounts.25 '
(3:16)
کھول لیے نے صفر کھاتے ہ ٭ط
*taahaa=ne sifar khaat-e khol li-ye Taha.M.SG=ERG zero account-M.PL open take- PFV.M.PL
' Taha opened up zero accounts. '
It should be noted that the existence of the entire world in which the event has
occurred can be questioned or negated but the event itself cannot be negated in its own
world. So the example 3:17 is grammatical because it questions whether a world exists in
which an event has certainly taken place.
(3:17)
؟ کھا لیانے آم ہ کیا ط
kyaa taahaa=ne aam khaa li-yaa?
what Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG eat take- PFV.M.SG
' Did Taha eat (a/the) mango? '
24 Using quantifiers such as kuch bhii / ko’ii bhii ‘nothing / no one’ will also render ungrammatical
sentences with RCs. 25 Author acknowledges the issue with ‘zero’ and ‘nothing’, however the quantifiers ’no one’ and ‘nothing’
in Urdu are somewhat complicated. The fact that ‘zero’ which is ‘something’ by some accounts, cannot be
used as object is actually a better evidence that RC cannot take ‘non existent’ objects.
43
Similarly, we can negate the existence of a world in which an event has taken
place:
(3:18)
کھا لے آم ہ ممکن نہیں کہ ط
mumkin=hii nahii;n ke taahaa aam khaa le hai
Possible=EMPH not that Taha.M.SG mango.M.SG eat take-SBJV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' It is not possible that Taha would eat (a/the) mango. '
In 3:18 the world in which Taha has certainly eaten a mango is not possible in
speaker’s opinion, which is allowed given our definition of the non-negatability of RCs in
their own world.
SEMANTIC MODIFICATION OF SV BY ITS CORRESPONDING RC:
Carnikova agrees with other scholars that the v of an RC modifies the meaning of
Vs but she believes that the semantic information contributed by the v‘s is not the primary
function of these constructions. According to her, the speaker either feels that either the
arguments of the sentence are important or the result of the action described in the
sentence. In the former case, the speaker selects a simple verb SV and in the latter case,
he/she selects an RC. I agree with Carnikova’s analysis in the sense that whenever an RC
is used, there is a certain attention given to the result of the action in the sentence. Agha’s
assertion is that the event is denoted by the Vs and indexed by v, but the only issue with
this idea is that regardless of the lexical class of Vs, the use of an RC always results in a
telic event. Thus even if we use an ‘atelic’ verb ‘sing’ in an atelic situation such as ‘he
sings’ all possible RCs using ‘sing’ will be telic events of having completed the act of
singing in some manner or another. This means that Vs cannot be the only factor affecting
the event associated with RCs.
It is true that with the addition of second verb v, the manner of Vs is modified, but
it is not a simple ‘addition’ of two separate meaning attributed to each verb or
44
‘application’ of one meaning to another. In Chapter 4, section 4.4 sub-section 10, we will
see that the modification of Vs by v depends on the pairing of the verbs, their internal
argument as well as context. This is why the classification of these constructions based
on either the first verb’s compatibility with the second verb, or second verb’s
compatibility with the first verb have not been very fruitful. As we will see, the second
verbs do not have fixed meanings to apply to their stem verb partners, their meaning
changes based on the properties of the stem verb.
INCOMPATIBILITY OF RCS WITH THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT:
Further complicating the matter is the incompatibility of RCs with the progressive
aspect even in the imperfective inflection. The only lexical semantic class, which is not
generally considered compatible with progressive aspect, is that of the ‘state’ verbs. Our
previous analysis on the event represented by RC had concluded that RC represents the
action and highlights the resultant state of the event. This analysis seems to fit perfectly
with the incompatibility of RCs with the progressive aspect.
When RCs are used with imperfective aspect (incomplete events), it changes the
event structure to a (repetitive or habitual) set of completed events each producing a
result, as can be seen in the following example:
(3:19a)
ہ آم کھاتا ہے ط
taahaa aam khaa-taa hai
Taha.M.SG mango.M.SG eat- IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha eats (a/the) mango (habitually) '
(3:19b)
ہ ہے کھا لیتاآم ط
taahaa aam khaa le-taa hai
Taha.M.SG mango.M.SG eat take- IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha eats (a/the) mango (habitually on individual occasions). '
45
Example 3:19a represents an ongoing habitual activity of Taha, which is an atelic
and imperfective event. However, in Example 3:19b there are two events, one is an
ongoing habitual activity of Taha which is an atelic and imperfective event, but it
encompasses individual telic events of Taha’s eating of a mango, each producing a result
(every time a mango gets eaten for sure). Thus, RCs attempt to bring telicity and
perfectivity to the events they represent even if the larger event is atelic and imperfect.
Regardless of the ‘dynamic’ or ‘durative’ property of the Vs verb, the only
consistent property of the RC is [+telic]. If RCs indeed highlight a resultant state they
could be a class of verb constructions (not lexical entries) belonging to the ‘unattested’
category mentioned in Olsen’s feature matrix Table 2.1 which is only marked for [+telic]
but can take up either ‘durative’ or ‘dynamic’ features depending on Vs. A classic ‘state’
verb maan’naa or ‘believe’ can demonstrate this transformation rather elegantly:
(3:20a)
ہ خدا کو مانتا ہے ط
taahaa .khudaa=ko maan-taa hai
Taha.M.SG god.M.SG=ACC believe- IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha believes in god.
(3:20b)
ہ ہے مان لیتاخدا کو ط
taahaa .khudaa=ko maan le-taa hai
Taha.M.SG god.M.SG=ACC believe take- IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha believes in god on individual occasions. '
The first version is a statement of the ‘state’ of Taha’s believing in a god. The
second RC version means that Taha on individual occasions completes the event of
believing in god. Now in order to have the next ‘event’ of belief in god, one has to stop
believing in the interim, which is pragmatically odd given our modern concept of belief
in gods, in general. However, in ancient times when gods were local entities and people
often worshipped a local god during their travels, the concept of having completed events
of believing and then abandoning that belief would have been common place. The verb
man’naa has several other meanings including ‘agree’, ‘pretend’ and ‘obey’. If we were
to replace ‘god’ with ‘order’, the sentence 3:20 will mean that Taha obeys (the) order as a
46
habit or obeys individual orders when they are issued. In either case ‘believe’ and ‘obey’
have [+durative] property and unmarked for dynamic, the only feature RC has added to
‘believing’ or ‘obeying’ is [+telic] and dynamic is left unmarked.
Thus we can either think of RCs as adding [+telic] feature to the lexical aspect of
Vs or we can think of RCs as a ‘class of verb construction’ which is only marked for
telicity ([+telic] feature) and unmarked for all other features (refer to literature review on
Olsen). In the latter case, RC picks other features based on the marked features of Vs
verb.
If that were to be true, what difference can RC make, when Vs is from
‘accomplishment’ and ‘achievement’ classes that are already marked for [+telic] feature?
Indeed these are the very verbs that sound ‘more complete, definite or final’ to the
speakers when used in an RC form. It is possible that under such circumstances, RCs
could only be adding the focus on ‘resulting state’ in the denotation as discussed above
and thus sound more ‘complete’ or ‘final’ to the speakers.
The attention-to-result theory of Carnikova explains the sense of ‘extra
completeness’, which speakers feel between the ‘accomplishment verb’ tabaah karnaa or
‘destroy do’ and its RC counterpart tabaah kar denaa or ‘destroy do give’. Former
represents a telic event of complete destruction but the latter also paints the picture of a
destroyed object existing as a result.
To summarize the above discussion, our analysis that RCs highlight the resultant
state of the event explains several observed properties of RCs. It explains why RCs
cannot be negated in the sense that no event took place because whenever an RC is used,
some event must have occurred. It also explains why RCs cannot be used in progressive
aspect because it highlights the ‘resultant state’ and therefore no further breakup of the
internal temporal fabric of the event is possible. The analysis also provides the reason
why the perfective RC of accomplishment class verb sounds more ‘complete’ than its
corresponding SV version because a resultant state adds that extra guarantee of the
action’s result such that it is now uncancellable. This is merely one, and by no means the
47
only, possible way of thinking about the lexical aspect of RCs. However, the fact that
RC’s cannot be negated or used in progressive aspect is still a defining property of RCs.
RCS SHIFT ATTENTION AWAY FROM ITS INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS:
The difference between an SV and RC of accomplishment class verbs is subtle,
but it is clearly pronounced in activity class verbs, which are atelic. An ‘activity’ verb
such as .dhuun.dnaa or ‘search’ when used in its RC form will be often interpreted as
‘found’ because a logical result of a completed event of searching is the state of having
found the entity being searched. Similarly other ‘activity’ verbs which are also transitive
or can be thought of as transitive such as ‘think’ or ‘cut’, when used with an RC, may be
interpreted with their logical result depending on the object and context involved:
(3:21a)
ہ نے ہاتھ کاٹا ط
taahaa=ne haath kaa.t-aa,
Taha.M.SG=ERG hand.M.SG cut- PFV.M.SG
' Taha cut (a/the) hand. '
(3:21b)
ہ کاٹ دیا نے ہاتھ ط
taahaa=ne haath kaa.t di-yaa Taha.M.SG=ERG hand.M.SG cut give- PFV.M.SG
' Taha cut/severed (a/the) hand. '
(3:22a)
ا سارہ نے ہار ڈھونڈ
saaraa=ne haar .dhuu;n.d-aa,
Sarah.F.SG=ERG necklace.M.SG search-PFV.M.SG
' Sarah searched for (a/the) necklace. '
(3:22b)
ڈھونڈ لیا سارہ نے ہار
saaraa=ne haar .dhuu;n.d li-yaa Sarah.F.SG=ERG necklace.M.SG search take-PFV.M.SG
' Sarah searched for/found (a/the) necklace. '
48
(3:23a)
ھانی نے سوچا
haanii=ne soc-aa,
Haani.M.SG=ERG think-PFV.M.SG
' Haani thought . '
(3:23b)
سوچ لیا ھانی نے
haanii=ne soc li-yaa Haani.M.SG=ERG think take-PFV.M.SG
' Haani thought/decided. '
Semantically, both versions in 3:21a and 3:21b are perfective but 3:21a is not
resultive, whereas 3:21b is a telic event with a guaranteed result and salience of this result
is the center of attention. The former will likely be interpreted as a cut on the hand, but
the latter will be interpreted as severing of the hand. Similarly in 3:22a SV ‘search’ is an
activity, whereas the RC version in 3:22b has the interpretation of the necklace being
found, which is a natural result of a completed activity of ‘searching’. The same can be
said for examples 3:23a and 3:23b. In fact, the RC does not really mean that the hand is
severed, the necklace is found or decision is made, or we would not be able to make
sentences such as the one given below:
(3:24)
نڈنا تھا جتنا ڈھو ڈھونڈ لیا سارہ نے ہار
saaraa=ne haar .dhuu;n.d li-yaa Sarah.F.SG=ERG necklace.M.SG search take-PFV.M.SG
jitnaa .dhuun.dnaa thaa
as:much:as:searching:was:sought.
' Sarah searched for (a/the) necklace as much as she wanted to search. '
(The sentence implies that Sarah is done searching the necklace and does not care to
search any further and that the necklace was not found.)
RCs, therefore, only assert ‘a’ result of the event; they do not point to a
‘particular’ result. The ‘specificity’ of a result is achieved from context because the
salience of the result demands it. Thus ‘search take’ only means that the activity is
complete (telic event) and ‘a’ resultant state is achieved. This result could be that the item
was not found, or that it was found or any other logically possible result. However, per
49
Carnikova (1989), the RCs shift the attention from the sentence constituents to the result
of the event; hence, the interpretation is the most logically achieved result given the
context and verbs involved in the construction of RC. Under normal context, if the result
of an activity of searching an object is highlighted, the most logical interpretation is that
the object being searched is found. Similarly if the result of cutting is highlighted the
most logical interpretation is that the thing being cut is severed.
VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF RCS
In order to understand why such activity verbs imply a result, which is not
necessarily part of the semantics of the RC, we look at another example similar to the
ones given in Singh’s 1998 paper about eating a cake:
(3:25)
کھا لیا رام نے کیک
raam=ne kek khaa li-yaa
Ram.M.SG=ERG cake.M.SG eat take-
PFV.M.SG
' Ram ate (a/the) cake. '
Some speakers will interpret 3:25 as if Ram has eaten the entire cake, others may
not have this interpretation. Why should such a discrepancy exist in the interpretation? In
order to understand this discrepancy, let us slightly modify this sentence:
(3:26)
کھا لیا رام نےزہریل کیک
raam=ne zehriilaa kek khaa li-yaa
Ram.M.SG=ERG poinsonous.M.SG cake.M.SG eat take-PFV.M.SG
' Ram ate (a/the) poisonous cake. '
Not many speakers will interpret 3:26 as if Ram has eaten the entire poisonous
cake. Why? The answer to this question may not lie in the syntax and semantics of the
sentence, because the verb and its relationship with the subject and object and the words
are all exactly the same in both sentences except for the added qualitative adjective
‘poisonous’. The answer may very well lie in the fact that the RCs require context in
50
order to be understood properly. In the absence of any context, listeners are forced to
make up contexts because the shifted attention and salience of the result demands it. Thus
in 3:25 where Ram eats a (normal) cake, the result of eating a cake has no cultural,
logical or contextual importance therefore many listeners will assume that the importance
is given to the event because the entire cake must have been eaten26. Others might reserve
their judgment and wait for the next sentence to figure out why the result of eating the
cake is so important after all. The fact that we can use adverbs such as ‘half’, ‘entire’ and
‘his portion of’ before the ‘cake’ in the sentence 3:25, proves that the meaning of ‘entire
cake’ is not implied by the semantics of the sentence, rather such meaning comes from
the context that the listener is imagining in order to make sense of the statement in
isolation. In 3:26, however, the consequences of having eaten a poisonous cake are
aplenty (Ram will die, must go to hospital etc.) and other contexts need not be invented
for this sentence and therefore most speakers will not assume that an entire poisonous
cake was eaten by Ram. Recall that in both cases the use of RC guarantees that the act of
eating (at least some portion of) the cake has produced a result (some portion of it is in
Ram's stomach).
The RC is not a focus-marker of sorts. It does not draw attention to any
constituent within the spoken sentence; instead, it draws attention to the result of an
event, which takes the conversation outside of the boundary of the spoken sentence into
the domain of the discourse. Hence, when RC is used in place of SV, it is likely to
demand a contextual salience. More research on the discourse marking of RCs needs to
be done to understand its event demarcation or information chunking capacity.
Let us look at some more examples to study the salience provided by RC to the
result of an action. In the following accounts of a robbery, the information may be
worded in many different ways and there are different reasons for choosing SVs or RCs
for each sentence.
26 Case in point: if we had fed prasaad or ‘holy offering’ to Ram, which does have a cultural context, no
one would have assumed that Ram ate all the holy offerings in the temple.
51
(3:30)
بھاگ گیا ، ہار چرایا اورکھول لیچور گھر میں داخل ہوا، اس نے الماری
cor ghar me;n daa.khil hu'aa, us=ne almaarii
Thief.M.SG house in enter be.PFV.M.SG 3.SG=ERG cupboard.F.SG
khol l-ii, haar curaa-yaa aur bhaag ga-yaa.
open take-
PFV.F.SG
necklace.M.SG steal-
PFV.M.SG
and run go-PFV.M.SG
' The thief entered (a/the) house, he opened (a/the) cupboard, stole (a/the) necklace and
ran away. '
The above sentence suggests that the event of opening the cupboard is important
(has salience in this discourse) because the RC ‘open take’ is used in place of SV 'open'
(maybe because it was a special un-openable cupboard, or there were other secrets in it
etc.) The final RC implies that currently the thief is at large. Recall that the entire event is
in the past perfective and even though there is no attention or salience given to SV
events, there is no reason to believe that the actions represented by SVs did not produce a
result. SVs are the unmarked category and regarding markedness in semantics, “one of
the most decisive criteria is that in many cases, the meaning of the unmarked category
can encompass that of its marked counterpart.” (Comrie 1976). The RC is marked for
telicity, the event is certain to have produced a result, which is salient in the discourse.
SV, on the other hand, is not marked and therefore may and may not mean all of that.
Thus, in sentence 3:30, the notable events are opening of the cupboard and escaping of
the thief; the certainty of an opened cupboard and the fact that thief is still at large is
implied.
(3:31)
بھاگ گیا اور چرالیا، اس نے الماری کھولی ہار ہوگیا چور گھر میں داخلcor ghar me;n daa.khil ho ga-yaa, us=ne almaarii
Thief.M.SG house in enter be
go.PFV.M.SG
3.SG=ERG Cupboard.F.SG
khol-ii, haar curaa li -yaa aur bhaag ga-yaa.
open-PFV.F.SG necklace.M.SG steal take-PFV.M.SG and run go-PFV.M.SG
' The thief entered (a/the) house, he opened (a/the) cupboard, stole (a/the) necklace and
ran away.'
52
In sentence 3:31, the entering of the thief in the house is more important than the
fact that he opened the cupboard (maybe because it shows the violation of privacy for
homeowners.) It seems that the opening of the cupboard was only the means for stealing
the necklace, which was another salient event in the narration. Finally, the event resulted
in an escaped thief who is still at large.
(3:32)
چور گھر میں داخل ہوا، الماری کھولی، ہار چرایا اور بھاگا
cor ghar me;n daa.khil hu’aa, us=ne almaarii
Thief.M.SG house in enter be.PFV.M.SG 3.SG=ERG cupboard.F.SG
khol-ii, haar curaa-yaa, aur bhaag-aa.
open-PFV.F.SG necklace.M.SG steal-PFV.M.SG and run-PFV.M.SG
' The thief entered (a/the) house, he opened (a/the) cupboard, stole (a/the) necklace and
ran. '
The sentence 3:32 reads like a description of a series of actions that took place.
Such sentences are typically used in the middle of a narration when the rest of the story is
yet to be told or it is a sort of report of the events. There is no guarantee that the thief is
still at large, though it is not precluded either (see markedness comment above). Notice
the difference between 'thief ran away' and 'thief ran'. In the first two sentences, the 'ran
away' gives the sense of a series of events that ended in a result whereas in the third
sentence, it seems that only the description of the action performed by the thief is
reported, namely: ‘the thief ran.’
3.2 PROPOSED PROPERTIES OF THE RCS
We are now in a position to revise Carnikova’s theory and propose a cohesive
account of the function of [Vsv] constructions in Urdu in which Vs is the stem of a main
content verb and v is a non-auxiliary verb used in a semantically light capacity.
53
Syntacto-Semantic Properties of RCs:
(i) In some fashion or other, the event represented by the RCs is both telic and
perfective regardless of the lexical aspect of Vs both in imperfective and
perfective inflections of the construction.
(ii) The event represented by an RC is certain to have produced a result whose state
must physically exist at some point in time.
(iii) The action represented by Vs is developed in some manner by the use of v, but v is
not the sole contributor to this development.
Pragmatic Properties of RCs:
(iv) The attention is drawn to the result of the completed event.
(v) The resulting outcome of the event is contextually salient in the current discourse.
We thus define [Vsv] constructions with the above properties as ‘resultive
constructions’. According to the properties given above, RCs necessarily deal with a telic
event existence of whose result is certain and its salience coupled with individual verbs
involved are responsible for the pragmatic interpretation of the entire construction. In the
next chapter we will see that the auxiliary rahnaa ‘to stay’ does not exhibit any of these
properties and the other special v's (cuk, sak and paa) exhibit only a subset of the five
properties and therefore cannot be considered RCs.
The reason I chose the term ‘resultive’ as opposed to ‘resultative’ is that I did not
want it to be confused with the resultative constructions in Germanic languages. The next
section briefly highlights some differences between Urdu resultives and Germanic
resultative constructions.
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3.3 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RCS AND CROSS-LINGUISTICALLY SIMILAR VERBAL
CONSTRUCTIONS:
After discussing what RCs are, it is appropriate to comment on what RCs are not.
In his 1968 work, Kiparsky has mentioned factive verbs, which presuppose the truth of
their proposition. Thus, “I regret/do not regret that it rained today” necessarily means that
the speaker is convinced that it rained today. The RCs do not presuppose the result of the
event rather they entail or imply it. Even if we are able to negate part of the RC as we see
in example 3:12-14 the certainty of ‘a’ result holds. So RC’s cannot be negated in the
sense that no event took place. Another difference between the factive verbs and RC is
that factives essentially take a proposition whereas RCs take non-propositional
arguments. More research on the topic can reveal a more definite association between
these constructions and factive verbs.
Sometimes particle-verb constructions, prevalent in Germanic languages, are also
compared to RCs, and indeed I have used them in my ‘translations’ as well. RCs have
some properties of the particle-verb constructions (for example ‘cut up’ and ‘switch off’)
but they are not quite the same. First off, RCs are verb-verb constructions and not verb-
particle constructions. Second, RCs are not negatable and cannot be used in progressive
aspect whereas verb-particle constructions have no such restrictions. Verb-particle
constructions are sometimes confused with ‘resultative constructions’ in which the
‘particle’ associated with the ‘verb’ denotes the resultant state of the action. Examples of
‘resultative or factitive constructions’ are ‘freeze solid’ or ‘wipe clean’ where the act of
freezing results in something changing its state to solid or the act of wiping results in
something being clean. The main difference between RC and ‘resultative constructions’
is that the particle in these constructions denotes the resultant state of the action but in
case of RC either the construction itself denotes ‘a’ result which is not explicitly
mentioned in the sentence or that result is a certainty due to the use of RC. Only a
thorough comparison of the semantic and syntactic features between the resultive
constructions of Urdu and those of the factive/assertive verbs and resultative/verb-particle
constructions can reveal any cross-linguistic association between these constructions. In
other words, resultive constructions in Urdu maybe closely related to resultative
constructions in Germanic languages, but they are not quite the same.
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CHAPTER 4 – DATA ANALYSIS
In Chapter 3, we defined RCs as the [Vsv] constructions possessing the following
properties:
(i) In some fashion or other, the event represented by the RCs is both telic and
perfective regardless of the lexical aspect of Vs both in imperfective and
perfective inflections of the construction.
(ii) The event represented by an RC is certain to have produced a result.
(iii) The action represented by Vs is developed in some manner, by the use of v, but v
is not the sole contributor to this development.
(iv) The attention is drawn to the result of the completed event.
(v) The resulting outcome of the event is contextually salient in the current discourse.
In this chapter, I will first differentiate between [Vsv] constructions and other
stem+verb constructions. I will then tease out the non-resultive [Vsv] constructions from
the resultive ones. Once I establish that the four special v’s are indeed not resultive in
nature, I will determine their individual functions separately. For the rest of the [Vsv]
constructions (represented by le and be.th), I will assume that they are all resultive in
nature and indeed possess the five properties above. I will demonstrate the veracity of my
claim by examining the chosen environments and behaviors of RCs mentioned in prior
literature, including Hook’s work (1977) and explain their behavior in the light of these
properties.
56
4.1 STEM+VERB CONSTRUCTIONS OTHER THAN [Vsv]:
We know that the stem+verb constructions in Urdu may and may not use both
verbs in their full semantic sense. Though our focus is on the [Vsv] constructions, it is
appropriate to discuss other kinds of stem+verb constructions briefly, such as [VsV] serial
constructions. There is reason to believe that serial verbs have similar, if not the same,
five properties that are proposed for RCs in Chapter 3. [VsV] constructions cannot be
negated or used in progressive aspect; in these ways they are similar to RCs. This is
another reason that points to the diachronic relationship between all stem+verb
constructions and the ‘having X’ed, Y’ or ‘X and Y’ expressions discussed in the
previous chapter. As mentioned before all four kinds of stem+verb constructions are
form-identical and have similar syntactic behavior. The only way to differentiate between
them is through semantic evaluation. However, despite many similarities, there are some
differences, especially between serial constructions and RCs.
Hook (1977) describes [VsV] constructions as ‘conjoined verbs’ for a good
reason: These verbs look like two verbs, which operate independently in their full
semantic sense that are joined together to describe a single event.
The one obvious difference between the [VsV] serial verb constructions and [Vsv]
is that the second verb is not semantically light in [VsV] constructions. Granted, this
poses some challenges in terms of defining what is semantically light and what may
genuinely be another dictionary use of the same verb. Another difference is that [VsV]
constructions take causatives as second verbs, (see example 3:1 in Chapter 3), whereas
[Vsv] constructions do not. In addition, the [Vsv] construction necessarily shares the same
external and internal arguments whereas the two verbs in a [VsV] may not share the
internal argument of their VP.
(4:1)
ہ ھانی نے بلا بھیجا کو ط haanii=ne taahaa=ko bulaa bhej-aa
Haani.M.SG=ERG Taha.M.SG=ACC call send-PFV.M.SG
' Haani sent (someone) and invited Taha (or Haani sent for Taha.) '
57
The verb bulaa is for Taha who is being called or invited, the verb bhej is for
someone else who was sent with that invitation. Thus, while both ‘call’ and ‘send’ share
the external argument (Haani), the internal argument (Taha) is not shared by both verbs.
The phrase version of this sentence will not be bulaa kar bhejaa ‘having called, sent’ but
bhej kar bulaayaa ‘having sent (someone), called’, because the sequence of actions needs
to be in that order to make sense. Thus, we see that actions in a [VsV] construction are
not always sequenced in the order they are intended to be carried out in real life and may
or may not share the same internal argument. These constructions are often mistaken as
[Vsv] constructions because the semantic contents of a verb are not as well defined in the
minds of speakers. There are many meanings of a single verb and sometimes a verb can
be used in its third or fourth meaning listed in a dictionary. In such cases, some speakers
would consider it as semantically ‘light’ while others would not.
In their paper, Hautli-Janisz and colleagues (2013) have treated constructions,
which involve two consecutive motion verbs as a new kind of [Vsv] construction called
“Motion Verb Sequence.” A particular example of bhaag nikalnaa ‘to run emerge’ and
nikal bhaagnaa ‘to emerge run’ is discussed in their work. Verb constructions such as
bhaag nikalnaa ‘to run emerge’ is a [Vsv] construction because nikalnaa is used in
semantically light sense and construction means to ‘run away’ usually from a trap or
confinement, however nikal bhaagnaa ‘to emerge run’ is a [VsV] construction where the
act of emerging must happen before the act of running27. We thus see the confusion in
differentiating between these constructions and their semantic analysis.
Among other stem+verb constructions are the [vsV] and [vsv] constructions, which
will be mentioned briefly here. A [vsV] construction is a [Vsv] construction in reverse
order. The most common kinds of vs used for this construction are aa ‘come’, jaa ‘go’, le
‘take’ and de ‘go’; these mark for added intensity or purpose on its meaning compared to
the normal [Vsv] order. It is to be noted that what might appear as a reverse order may not
27 Nikalnaa is one of the v’s used in [Vsv] constructions (See Appendix B); bhaagnaa is not identified as a
possible v because it does not combine with any Vs. such that it means anything other than its explicit
meaning of ‘to run’. Besides this information, such judgements can be made directly through semantic
evaluation of the construction.
58
be an intensified version of its standard form, but a different construction altogether.28
Hence, most aa and jaa reversals may actually be different constructions. In everyday
language, de and le reversals are more common and can be true reversals (as opposed to
different constructions).
The [vsv] constructions are only found in passive sentences with the vs essentially
being the passivizer verb jaa and the second verb is either an auxiliary or a modal verb
(see explanation and example 1:6 in Chapter 1.) Our work will focus on [Vsv]
constructions so it was important to clarify that there are form-identical constructions in
Urdu, which may be relevant to our topic, but are not part of our present research.
4.2 IDENTIFYING THE NON-RESULTIVE [Vsv] CONSTRUCTIONS:
In this section I will use the SV version of a verb and its [Vsv] counterparts using
the four special v’s and two additional v’s (one transitive and one intransitive) to see if
they possess the first three properties or not. In total we will evaluate seven verb forms:
SV version of Vs, Vs+rah, Vs+sak, Vs+cuk, Vs+paa, Vs+le ‘take’ (transitive) and
Vs+be.th ‘sit’ (intransitive).
DETERMINING THE TELICITY OF EVENTS REPRESENTED BY NON-RESULTIVE [Vsv]
CONSTRUCTIONS:
In order to establish that the [Vsv] constructions that use the four special v’s are
indeed non-resultive, let us examine some data. The first property of RCs is that they
represent a complete event. For this property, let us examine only the imperfective
inflections, because we know that in perfective inflections, even simple verbs can
28 Hook (1977) provides the example of mil gayaa ‘meet go’ and jaa milaa ‘go meet’. The former is a [Vsv]
meaning ‘to meet up’ or ‘get found’ but the latter requires an explicit action of going before the act of
meeting (technically a [VsV] serial construction). Hence, these are two different constructions and not a
reverse version of each other.
59
represent a telic event. Recall that rah ‘stay’ cannot be used in the imperfect form in a
[Vsv] construction. Hence, for rah we will use a perfective inflection just to keep a
complete dataset on all seven forms of the verb. To find out if an event is telic or atelic
we will use the usual time duration test of ‘in’ and ‘for’ (Tenny 1994). The duration ‘for a
time’ can be easily applied to atelic events such as ‘sing for an hour’ because there is no
inherent end whereas ‘in an hour’ can be applied only to telic events because the end is
expected. We will use the imperfective form of an atelic situation of the ‘activity’ class
verb ‘sing’ to test out our [Vsv] constructions. An event in imperfective without any
added context for telic situation for an activity class verb (which is unmarked for telicity)
has little chance to be telic under normal situations, but as we shall see RCs will add
[+telic] feature to such an event regardless.
Postpositions often do not bear one to one correspondence between languages.
Thus, ‘for the duration’ is expressed in different ways in Urdu, depending on the aspect
and tense. To mean ‘for the duration’ the usual postposition is tak ‘till’, but in progressive
aspect se ‘since’ is used. In 4:8, I used the verb kho ‘lose’ instead because ‘sing’ is not
compatible with be.th ‘sit’ (‘sing sit’ is not quite elegant but ‘lose sit’ is.):
(4:2)
ہ ایک گھنٹے تک/٭میں گاتا ہے ط
taahaa ek ghan.te tak/*me;n gaa-taa hai29
Taha.M.SG=ERG one hour till/ in sing-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha sings for / *in an hour. '
(Present indefinite/habitual)
(4:3)
ہے گا رہا ایک گھنٹے سے/٭میں ہ ط taahaa ek ghan.te se/*me;n gaa rah-aa hai
Taha M.SG one hour since/* in sing stay-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has been singing for/*in an hour. '30 (Progressive)
29 There are some complications in the postpositions of Urdu. I am strictly using tak as ‘for the duration’
and me;n as ‘within the duration’. There are other meanings of these postpositions that may be grammatical
for these sentences, but my grammaticality judgements here, are based on these specific meanings alone. 30 The postposition tak is not grammatical here, se means ‘for/since’ in this case.
60
(4:4)
ہ ہے گا سکتا تک/٭میں ایک گھنٹے ط taahaa ek ghan.te tak/*me;n gaa sak-taa hai
Taha M.SG one hour till/ in sing can-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha can sing for/*in one hour. ' (Present indefinite/habitual showing ability to sing)
(4:5)
ہ ہے گا چکتا ایک گھنٹے٭تک/میں ط taahaa ek ghan.te *tak/me;n gaa cuk-taa hai
Taha M.SG one hour till/in sing finish-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha finishes singing in/*for one hour. (Completes iterative events of singing in reference to another time salient in discourse)
(4:6)
ہ ہے گا پاتا ایک گھنٹے تک/٭میں ط taahaa ek ghan.te tak/*me;n gaa paa-taa hai
Taha M.SG one hour till/*in sing manage-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha manages to sing for/*in one hour. ' (Present indefinite/habitual showing ability to sing)
(4:7)
ہ ہے گا لیتاایک گھنٹے تک/میں ط taahaa ek ghan.te tak/me;n gaa le-taa hai
Taha M.SG one hour till/in sing take-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha sings for/in one hour (Can sing for an hour to complete an event, or can complete an event within one hour.)
(4:8)
ہ ہے کھو بیٹھتاایک گھنٹے ٭تک/میں ہار ط taahaa ek ghan.te tak/me;n haar kho be.th-taa hai
Taha M.SG one hour *till/in necklace lose sit-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha ends up losing (the) necklace *for/in one hour. ' (completes the event within an
hour.)
In the above data, 4:5 and 4:7-8 are the only three sentences that allow the ‘in an
hour’ expression to be used, indicating that the event represented by them is telic. This is
by no means an exhaustive test but gives us an idea of how a typical RC in imperfect
inflection represents a telic event. The habitual aspect in RC is reinterpreted as a series of
individual completed events (at different times). Other imperfective aspects in Urdu are
similarly re-interpreted to indicate completed events. It is clear that sentences 4:2-4 and
61
4:6 are intrinsically incomplete events (though these sentences may be about a telic
situation in appropriate contexts with appropriate adverbs as described by Olsen 1994).
Thus with the exception of cuk ‘finish’ three out of the four special v’s do not represent
telic events and are, by definition, not RCs.
DETERMINING THE ATTENTION SHIFTING PROPERTY OF NON-RESULTIVE [Vsv]
CONSTRUCTIONS:
There is no standard test mentioned in the literature to determine whether the
attention of the discourse is on the constituents of the sentence or the result of the
completed action. We are thus dependent on the judgement of native speakers including
the author. The interpretation of each sentence by the author (and confirmed by two other
native speakers) is given in parenthesis under the normal translation:
(4:9)
ہ نے کئ پل بناۓ ہیں ط taahaa=ne ka’ii pul banaa-e hai;n
Taha.M.SG=ERG many bridge-M.PL make-PFV.M.PL be.PRS.PL
' Taha has made many bridges. ' (A reportive sentence giving information on what Taha has done.)
(4:10)
ہ ہے بنارہا کئ پل ط taahaa ka’ii pul banaa rah-aa hai
Taha.M.SG many bridge-M.PL make stay-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha is making many bridges. ' (A reportive sentence describing an ongoing action)
(4:11)
ہ ہے بناسکاکئ پل ط taahaa ka’ii pul banaa sak-aa hai
Taha.M.SG many bridge-M.PL make can-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has been able to make many bridges. ' (A reportive statement describing the ability of Taha to have made bridges.)
62
(4:12)
ہ ہے ناچکابکئ پل ط taahaa ka’ii pul banaa cuk-aa hai
Taha.M.SG many bridge-M.PL make finish-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has finished making many bridges. ' (A reportive statement describing the fact that Taha has finished making many bridges)
(4:13)
ہ ہے بنا پایا کئ پل ط taahaa ka’ii pul banaa paa-yaa hai
Taha.M.SG many bridge-M.PL make manage-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has managed to make many bridges. ' (A reportive statement describing the ability of Taha to have made bridges.)
(4:14)
ہ ہیں بنا لیےنے کئ پل ط taahaa=ne ka’ii pul banaa li-ye hai;n
Taha.M.SG=ERG many bridge-M.PL make take-PFV.M.PL be.PRS.PL
' Taha has made many bridges (for his benefit.) ' The statement is not about Taha, it is about the fact that many bridges exist, which
happen to
be constructed by Taha)
(4:15)
ہ ہے بنا بیٹھا کئ پل ط taahaa ka’ii pul banaa be.th-aa hai
Taha.M.SG many bridge-M.PL make sit-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has made many bridges (inadvertently.) ' (The statement is not about Taha, it is about the fact that many bridges exist, which
happen to
be inadvertently constructed by Taha)
These examples were chosen with SV in perfective aspect, so all sentences except
for 4:10 are telic events. Example 4:10 is an ongoing activity and the event is not yet
complete. The SV in 4:9 is a reportive statement. Sentence 4:11 is also describing the
ability of Taha to have made all those bridges. The attention is neither on Taha, nor on
the result (constructed bridges), in fact it seems to be on the ability of Taha to have made
those bridges. The verb sak seems to be shifting the attention to the ability of Taha to
make bridges rather than the result of the action of having made the bridges. Although
Carnikova believes that cuk shifts attention to the result of the action like all RCs, the
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sentence 4:12 indicates that this is not the case. As mentioned before is hard to prove
where the ‘attention’ of a sentence is, other than asking native speakers and relying on
their competency and contextual bias. However, in the case of 4:12 we have another
proof. This same sentence is also used in common vernacular to mean ‘Taha is an
experienced bridge builder’, whereas 4:14 cannot be used in this sense. Thus, we can say
with some confidence that 4:12 is still all about Taha and not about the result of his built
bridges like 4:14. We will be revisit this point when we talk about the emphasis markers
hii and bhii in Urdu, later in this chapter.
The verbs sak and paa have been identified as ‘modal’ verbs in many sources
(Hook 1977, Bhatt 2001, Schmidt 1999.) The verb cuk is also referred to as the modal
‘already’ (Bhatt 2001, Hook 1977). The notion of ‘already’ comes from the fact that cuk
is always used in reference to another time salient in the discourse and that it represents a
telic event, and ‘already’ seems to capture both these properties.
DETERMINING CERTAINTY OF RESULT WITH NON-RESULTIVE [Vsv] CONSTRUCTIONS:
The third property of the certainty of the event to have produced a result means
that the RC constructions in Urdu cannot be negated in the indicative mood. If RCs were
only drawing attention to the result of an event, they could technically draw attention to
the lack of result or ‘non-result’ of an event, but we see that this is not a possibility in
Urdu. I believe that either the result of the event is included in the denotation of an RC or
it is somehow guaranteed. It is this certainty of the event to have produced a result, which
prevents RCs from being negated. Let us start with our data for the seven chosen v’s to
study to see which ones allow themselves to be negated.
(4:16)
ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑھتا ہے haanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh-taa hai
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani does not read (a/the) book. '
64
(4:17)
ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑھ رہا ہے haanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh rah-aa hai
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read saty-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani is not reading (a/the) book. '
(4:18)
ھ سکتا ہے ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑhaanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh sak-taa hai
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read can-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani cannot read (a/the) book. '
(4:19)
ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑھ چکتا ہے haanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh cuk-taa hai
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read finish-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani does not finish reading (a/the) book (in association with a specific time.) '
(4:20)
ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑھ پاتا ہے haanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh paa-taa hai
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read manage-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani is not able to read (a/the) book. '
(4:21)
٭ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑھ لیتا ہے *haanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh le-taa hai31
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read take-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' *Haani does not read up (a/the) book (for his own benefit.) '
(4:22)
٭ھانی کتاب نہیں پڑھ بیٹھتا ہے *haanii kitaab nahii;n pa.rh be.th-taa hai
Haani.M.SG book.F.SG not read sit-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' *Haani does not read up (a/the) book (inevitably.) '
The data clearly picks out the SV and the four special v’s as freely negatable in
example 4:16-20. Thus, by definition, the four special v’s do not generate RCs when
31 The other possible translations for (4:42-43) will be discussed when the negation of RCs will be
discussed in section 4.2.3.8
65
combined with verb stems. Regardless of the semantic information contributed by the
verb le and be.th, their respective RC is not negatable and represents an event, which is
certain to have produced a result.
In this section, we found that the four special v’s are not resultive in nature.
Although cuk represents a completed event, it neither guarantees a result nor shifts the
attention to it. Therefore, the function of the four special v’s is different from the rest of
the resultive [Vsv] constructions. The next step is to delve deeper into their precise
function in the language.
4.3 A DISCUSSION ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THE NON-RESULTIVE [Vsv]
CONSTRUCTIONS IN VARIOUS OBSERVED ENVIRONMENTS:
All scholars agree on the auxiliary status of rah ‘stay’, which is used in perfective
inflection for progressive aspect, so no further elaboration is needed on its function32. The
ability modals sak and paa, on the other hand, have not been fully explored in terms of
their lexical aspect. The present work is dedicated to the function of resultive
constructions, therefore only a short digression on the lexical aspect of non-resultive
[Vsv] construction will be given in this section. More research is needed for a
comprehensive understanding of the aspectual contents of the modals in Urdu.
Scholars and grammar books alike have mentioned a few differences between sak
‘can/able’ and paa ‘to manage’ such as the desirability of the act and extrinsic ability33 in
case of paa and intrinsic ability34 in terms of sak which is neutral to desire (Carnikova
1989). However, the imperfect inflections of these modals reveal a much deeper divide
between the two modals both syntactically and pragmatically. Let us first look at their
pragmatic difference:
32 Recall that the imperfective and infinitive inflection of rah cannot be used in a [Vsv] construction, (i.e.
with a verb stem) at all. 33 Ability due to environmental factors. 34 Ability due to personal capability.
66
(4:23)
ہو؟ کر سکتےکیا تم لڑکیوں سے بات kyaa tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar sak-te ho?
what 2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.f.sg do can-2.IPFV.M.SG be.2.PRS.SG
' Can you talk to girls? '
(4:24)
ہو؟ اتےکرپ کیا تم لڑکیوں سے بات kyaa tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar paa-te ho?
what 2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.f.sg do manage-2.IPFV.M.SG be.2.PRS.SG
' Do you manage to talk to girls? '
On the surface both 4:24 and 4:25 are asking the same question, whether the
person has the ability to talk to the girls or not. However, an affirmative answer to 4:23
will only assert that the person has the ability to talk to the girls, but an affirmative
answer to 4:24 will necessarily imply that in addition to that ability, the person being
asked has had multiple prior experiences of having talked to the girls. This shows that the
imperfective inflection of paa implies past-completed events which sak does not.
(4:25)
ہو کر پاتے تم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar paa-te ho
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do manage-2.IPFV.M.SG be.2.PRS.SG
' You manage to talk to girls. '
(4:26)
ہو کر پاۓتم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar paa-e ho
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do manage-2.PFV.M.SG be.2.PRS.SG
' You have managed to talk to girls. '
(4:27)
ؤگےکر پا تم لڑکیوں سے باتtum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar paa-oge
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do manage-2.FUT.M
' You will manage to talk to girls. '
In the above examples, only 4:25 implies multiple past experiences (due to a
habitual reading of the sentence). Without context, sentence 4:26 implies only one past
experience of having talked to the girls but can be extended to multiple experiences with
67
appropriate adverbs, whereas the future tense in 4:27 does not imply any past experience
of the event.. In contrast, when we use sak instead of paa in the same sentences, we get:
(4:28)
ہو کر سکتے تم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar sak-te ho
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do can-2.IPFV.M be.2.PRS.SG
' You can talk to girls. '
(4:29)
ہو کر سکےتم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar sak-e ho
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do can-2.PFV.M be.2.PRS.SG
' You have been able to talk to girls. '
(4:30)
کر سکوگےتم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar sak-oge 2.SG girl-OBL.F.PL with talk.F.SG do can-2.FUT.M
' You will be able to talk to girls. '
The sentence 4:28 is a present indefinite tense, and does not imply any past
experience of having talked to the girls, even if we use adverbs such as ‘always’. It only
informs us of the possible ability of the person and not whether he has, or has not, ever
talked to the girls before. The perfect aspect in 4:29 means there is only one past
experience of the event but, like paa, it too can be extended to multiple past experiences
with adverbs such as ‘always’. Similar to paa, 4:30 implies no past experience regardless
of the adverbs used. Repeating these sentences for cuk, we get:
(4:31)
ہو کر چکتےتم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar cuk-te ho
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do finish-2.IPFV.M be.2.PRS.SG
' You finish talking to girls. '
(4:32)
ہو کر چکےتم لڑکیوں سے بات tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar cuk-e ho
2.SG girl-F.SG.OBL with talk.F.SG do finish-2.PFV.M be.2.PRS.SG
' You have finished talking to girls. '
68
(4:33)
چکوگےتم لڑکیوں سے بات کر tum la.rki-yo;n se baat kar cuk-oge
2.SG girl-OBL.F.PL with talk.F.SG do finish-2.FUT.M
' You will finish talking to girls. '
Carnikova (1989) believes that even though cuk represents a telic event (it
literally means ‘finish’) it is usually in reference to another time or event important in the
discourse. Hence, for 4:31 a more appropriate context is that, in reference to a certain
time, the iterative events of talking to the girls are completed. Therefore, it is similar to
paa in the sense that past event(s) of talking to the girls are implied and the sentence has
the habitual reading meaning the person is in the habit of finishing talking to the girls in
reference to a specific time. 4:32-33 are a single event and cannot be thought of as
habitual or having prior experience of talking to the girls, even if other adverbs are used.
This is different from sak and paa because their perfective inflections in 4:26 and 4:29
can imply past experiences with appropriate adverbs but the same sentence with cuk in
example 4:32 cannot. Notice that 4:25 and 4:31 have the habitual reading, whereas 4:28
is in the present indefinite tense and cannot imply past experience of having talked to the
girls. This perceived difference in tense/aspect/mood between sak and other modals in the
imperfective inflections is more prominent in the following sentences:
(4:34)
کر پاتااگر کوشش کرتا تو کام agar koshish kar-taa to kaam
if effort.F.SG manage- IPFV.M.SG then work.M.SG
kar paa-taa
do manage- IPFV.M.SG
' If (I or he) had tried, (I or he) would have managed to do (the) work. '
(4:35)
تھا کر سکتا٭ اگر کوشش کرتا تو کامagar koshish kar-taa to kaam
if effort.F.SG do- IPFV.M.SG then work.M.SG
kar sak-taa* thaa
do can- IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG
' If (I or he) had tried, (I or he) would have been able to do (the) work. '
69
(4:36)
کر چکتا اگر کوشش کرتا تو کامagar koshish kar-taa to kaam kar cuk-taa
if effort.F.SG do- IPFV.M.SG then work.M.SG do finish- IPFV.M.SG
' If (I or he) had tried, (I or he) would have finished doing (the) work. '
We see that sak in 4:35 requires an extra ‘be’ verb if we want the same tense-
aspect-mood as paa and cuk in 4:34 and 4:36. In fact, sak is not grammatical without the
‘be’ verb in the second clause, which is in indicative mood. Thus, the VP with sak has
different syntactical properties than the VPs with paa, cuk and other verbs that are part of
resultive constructions. This requirement for sak in the indicative mood can be further
explored in the following sentences when the tense in the second clause normally
requires a ‘be’ verb for all verbs. We see that sak continues to demand one extra ‘be’ in
the imperfective to match the tense-aspect-mood marking of the other verbs:
(4:37)
تھا کر پاتا جب بھی کوشش کرتا تھا تو کام jab bhii koshish kar-taa thaa to kaam
when=EMPH effort.F.SG do-IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG then work.M.SG
kar paa-taa thaa
do manage- IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG
' Whenever I used to try (on each occasion) I used to manage to do (the) work. '
(4:38)
ہوتا تھا کر سکتا جب بھی کوشش کرتا تھا تو کام
jab bhii koshish kar-taa thaa to kaam
when=EMPH effort.F.SG do-IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG then work.M.SG
kar sak-taa ho-taa thaa
do can-IPFV.M.SG be-IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG
' Whenever I used to try (on each occasion) I used to be able to do (the) work. '
(4:39)
تھا کرچکتا جب بھی وہ آتا تھا تو میں کام
jab bhii vo aa-taa thaa to mai;n kaam
when=EMPH 3.SG come-IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG then 1.SG work.M.SG
kar cuk-taa thaa
do finish- IPFV.M.SG be.PST.M.SG
' Whenever he used to come (on each occasion) I used to have finished (the) work. '
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We know from the time/duration test that cuk represents a complete event but paa
and sak do not. However, we see that sak does not have a habitual reading in imperfective
inflection whereas paa and cuk do. We also see that sak requires an extra ‘be’ verb to
match the tense-aspect-mood indicated by paa and cuk. If we were to use a v such as le or
de, we will see that they have the same tense-aspect-mood as paa and cuk in sentences
similar to 4:34 and 4:36. We thus see that in terms of properties and aspectual
information encoded in these modals, they are somewhere in between the resultive
constructions and auxiliary verbs. In relation to telicity, paa and sak seem to pair up (are
atelic) and cuk is the outlier (forms a telic construction). However, if we look at the tense-
aspect-mood information paa and cuk seem to pair up with the rest of the resultive [Vsv]
constructions and sak is an outlier (requires an extra ‘be’ verb in indicative mood). It is
possible that these modals are in the process of grammaticalization and have not yet
found a neat category to settle in.
4.4 EXPLANATION OF THE BEHAVIOR OF RCS IN VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTS:
Apart from the four special v’s, rest of the v’s used in various [Vsv] constructions
are assumed to possess the five properties discussed in Chapter 3. Scholars such as
Carnikova (1989) and Maulvi (1991) have specifically singled out the four special v’s to
be different both syntactically and semantically from other [Vsv] constructions. No
difference (other than the ‘semantic contribution’) has been observed or reported in the
syntactic use or semantic content of [Vsv] constructions that use these other v’s. In this
section, we will examine data for the more frequently used v’s such as ‘sit’, ‘take’, ‘give’
and ‘put’35, to make general statements about all v’s. The idea is that these frequently
used v’s represent the rest of the v’s in terms of the five properties of RCs established in
chapter 3. Another reason to use the more commonly used v’s instead of the rarely used
ones is their user-friendliness for the informants and native speakers consulted for this
thesis.
35 See Appendix B
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Chapter 3 had concluded with the remark that if a set of properties can explain the
various behaviors of RCs in different linguistic environments, it would be a sign that we
are on the right path to understanding their function. As mentioned before, Hook’s work
on the “Hindi compound verb” is exhaustive and well organized. I have made full use of
the observations identified in his work in presenting this data.
1: THE EMPHASIS MARKERS hii AND bhii CHANGE MEANING IN SV USE VS. RC USE36:
The emphasis marker hii seems to change its meaning when used with SV vs. RC.
Hook has noted that without any additional context, hii used with subject in sentence with
an SV singles out that subject, he calls it the ‘deictic or limiting hii’ whereas an RC only
seems to allow the ‘emphatic hii’ interpretation. We will look at some examples to show
how this relates to the property of SV to highlight the subject versus the property of RC
to pay attention to the result of the action:
(4:40)
ہ نے ہی آم کھایا ط
taahaa=ne=hii aam khaa-yaa
Taha.M.SG=ERG=EMPH mango.M.SG eat-PFV.M.SG
' Only Taha ate (a/the) mango (no one else did.) '
(4:41)
ہ کھا لیا نے ہی آم ط
taahaa=ne=hii aam khaa li-yaa
Taha.M.SG=ERG=EMPH mango.M.SG eat-PFV.M.SG
' Even Taha ate (a/the) mango (we didn’t unexpected that from Taha!)37 '
The sentence 4:40 uses SV therefore the attention is on Taha, since the emphasis
marker is also on Taha, the outcome is that he is singled out as the only person who ate
the mango. In 4:41, the attention has been shifted to the result, so now we have two
competing attention devices, the emphasis marker hii on Taha and the attention shifting
36 The emphasis markers in Urdu require more attention than has been given to them, especially in their
semantic evaluations. Urdu utilizes these emphasis markers to create compound constructions, which
represent different quantifiers depending on various other parameters in the sentences. 37 The translation ‘even’ is an approximation in these examples.
72
RC on the result of him having eaten a mango. As a result, the entire meaning of the
sentence is re-interpreted to emphasize Taha’s role in the result of the action of eating a
mango! The sentence 4:41 can be uttered in a context when no one was expected to eat
the mango, least of all Taha, but he ate the mango and therefore the result was quite
unexpected and disappointing. If we use the hii on the internal argument, aam, we get:
(4:42)
ہ نے آم ہی کھایا ط
taahaa=ne aam=hii khaa-yaa
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG=EMPH eat- PFV.M.SG
' Taha ate only (a/the) mango (say, not the banana.) '
(4:43)
ہ نے آم ہی کھالیا ط
taahaa=ne aam=hii khaa li-yaa
Taha.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG=EMPH eat- PFV.M.SG
' Taha ate up even (a/the) mango (a result we didn’t expect from Taha!) '
Again, we see that SV in 4:42 keeps the emphasis ‘only’ on the mango because
mango has the emphasis marker and it is only the mango that Taha ate and not (say) the
banana from a basket of assorted fruits. However, in 4:43, RC’s property of attention
shifting competes with the emphasis provided by hii and the interpretation is that we did
not expect Taha to eat any fruit least of all the mango, but he ate it, which was an
unexpected result. It is interesting to note that the interpretation is that of disappointment
and not a positive expectation. It cannot be said with certainty why this is so. However, if
the event represented by RC is certain to have produced a result and the attention is
shifted to an expected result, it may cause the added attention device (hii) to be
interpreted as that of an unexpected event, (because the expected result was already part
of normal RC interpretation).
To test whether sak, paa and cuk shift the attention to the result of the action or
not, we could use them with hii and see if there are any re-interpretations possible. Thus,
using hii with cuk, sak and paa in a sentence similar to 4:43, we get:
73
(4:44)
ہ آم ہی کھا چکا ہے ط
taahaa aam=hii khaa cuk-aa hai
Taha.M.SG mango.M.SG=EMPH eat finish-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has finished (a/the) mango alone (say, not the banana!) '
(4:45)
ہ آم ہی کھا سکا ہے ط
taahaa aam=hii khaa sak-aa hai
Taha.M.SG mango.M.SG=EMPH eat can-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has been able to eat (a/the) mango alone (say, not the banana!) '
(4:46)
ہ آم ہی کھا پایا ہے ط
taahaa aam=hii khaa paa-yaa hai
Taha.M.SG mango.M.SG=EMPH eat manage-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Taha has managed to eat (a/the) mango alone (say, not the banana!) '
This non-interference of cuk, sak and paa with the emphasis marker hii gives
more evidence that they may not be shifting the attention from the internal and external
arguments to the result of the action.
The emphasis marker bhii ‘also’, can sometimes be part of a negative polarity
item when used with quantifiers (Mahajan 1990). This environment is also mentioned in
Hook’s 1977 dissertation. These emphasis markers make several quantifiers such as ko’ii
bhii and kuch bhii38 (literally ‘some also’) but these quantifiers have different meanings
when used with an SV vs. RC. A detailed analysis of quantifier semantics in Urdu is
outside the scope of this work, but similar to the case with hii, the attention shifting
property of RC competes with the emphasis markers and wherever re-interpretation is
possible, these markers change their meaning. Thus koi bhii means ‘any / anyone’ in 4:47
when used with an SV, but it means ‘someone indeed’ when used with an RC in 4:48.
(4:47)
تا ہے ئ بھی لڑکا آم کھا٭کو
*ko’ii=bhii la.rkaa aam khaa-taa hai
some=EMPH boy.M.SG mango.M.SG eat-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' *Any boy eats (a/the) mango. '
38 Quantifier ko’ii is used for count nouns and kuch for mass nouns.
74
(4:48)
ئ بھی لڑکا آم کھا لیتا ہے کو
ko’ii=bhii la.rkaa aam khaa le-taa hai
some=EMPH boy.M.SG mango.M.SG eat take-IPFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' Some boy (indeed) eats up (a/the) mango. '
The author is keenly aware of the complications involved in the semantics of
Urdu quantifiers. This account does not even scratch the surface of the intricacies
involved in the use of emphasis markers, especially with quantifiers. In fact, the most
interesting emphasis marker to ‘then’ is not discussed here which is the most
pragmatically charged emphasis marker. There are many unexplained phenomena and I
do not pretend to have explained or even listed the idiosyncrasies involved. More
research on the effect of RCs on quantifiers will aid in understanding the function of RCs
as well as that of the quantifiers and various emphasis markers of Urdu, including hii
‘only’, bhii ‘also’ and most importantly to ‘then’.
2: RCS CANNOT BE USED IN ‘GENERIC’ AND ‘STATIVE’ EXPRESSIONS:
Hook (1977) defines the terms ‘generic’ and ‘stative’ as follows:
Certain classes of utterances either permitting no tensual contrasts
at all or exhibiting a markedly reduced set of them show only the
simple manifestation of the verb….We define ‘generic’ here as
any expression of universal scope used either to teach children
about the world; foreigners , the language; or as a kind of
catch-phrase or proverb. Stative expressions are those that
specify static relations…They express relations, which stand
outside of delimitable time: those of shape, extent, composition,
ability, knowledge belief, possession, even age.
If we want to point to a fact in the simplest way or show a relationship, using RC
often results in pragmatically odd sentences. Let us look at the following examples from
Hook’s dissertation:
75
(4:49)
دو اور دو چار ہوتے ہیں do aur do chaar ho-te hai;n
Two and two four be- IPFV.M.PL be.PRS.PL
' Two and two are four. (2+2 =4) '
(4:50)
دو اور دو چار ہوجاتے ہیں do aur do chaar ho jaa-te hai;n
Two and two four be go- IPFV.M.PL be.PRS.PL
' Two and two become four. '
Hook’s informants have deemed 4:50 as ungrammatical which is not entirely true.
The sentence 4:49 is a statement of fact, but 4:50 is an affirmation of a result as seen in
the translation of ‘are’ and ‘become’. The idea is that in a statement of fact the
importance and attention must be given to the subject and object or constituents of the
sentence and their relationship. The shifting of focus outside the sentence, to the result of
the sentence, is not the goal and can generate pragmatically odd sentences. We can easily
say ‘earth is round’ as a fact, but to say ‘earth becomes round’ implies that it is not round
but it becomes so and hence an odd thing to say. Similarly, as a factual statement, it is
appropriate to say that ‘lion eats meat’ but to say it with an RC ‘eat take’ could be odd
indeed. However, the latter statement is quite grammatical given the context. Imagine a
conversation, in which two hunters are discussing a strategy to hunt lions. One can
imagine the sentence ‘lion eat-takes the meat’ coming up when a hunter describes what
happens as a result when he ties a piece of meat to a tree. Therefore, the reason that
‘generic’ statements cannot use RCs is because RC changes the direction of discourse.
What Hook has uncovered is that the goal of a generic statement is to give information on
the subject or object therefore using RCs, which shift the attention to result of the action,
often generates pragmatically odd sentences.
Similarly, for ‘stative’ statements showing relationship or states concern
themselves with the state of the subject and object or nature of their relationship and not
the effect of the action or its result etc. In fact, the verbs that Hook has identified for such
stative expressions are so odd to use in an RC that they have been re-interpreted to mean
something else in the language. One such example is ‘believe’:
76
(4:51a)
تم میری بات مانتے ہو tum mer-ii baat maan-te ho
2.SG my:word believe-IPFV.2.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' You believe /agree to what I say. '
(4:51b)
ہو مان جاتےتم میری بات
tum mer-ii baat maan jaa-te ho
2.SG my:word believe go-IPFV.2.M.SG be.PRS.SG
' You believe /agree to what I say. '
The associated RCs for ‘believe’ such as maan lo ‘believe take’ or maan jaa’o
‘believe go’ actually mean ‘suppose/agree’ and ‘agree’ respectively. However again, this
is not a syntactic restriction as discussed with example 3:20 in the previous chapter. The
bottom line is that stative and generic situations generally pay attention to constituents in
the sentence, and favor SV. When RC’s are used in such sentences, the function of the
sentence changes from supplying information about the subject or object to paying
attention to the result of the supplied information.
3: RCS ARE NOT USED FOR CREATION AND DISCOVERIES:
Creations and discoveries, much like factual statements, are all about the
information on the subject and object and not the result of the action. Using an RC in
such statements will not be ungrammatical but serve a different purpose. Hook’s
examples for this environment are:
(4:52)
کولمبس نے امریکہ کی کھوج کی
kolambas=ne amriikaa=kii khoj k-ii
Columbus.M.SG=ERG America.M.SG=GEN discover.F.SG do-PFV.F.SG
' Columbus discovered America. '
(4:53)
کرلی کولمبس نے امریکہ کی کھوج
kolambas=ne amriikaa=kii khoj kar l-ii
Columbus.M.SG=ERG America.M.SG=GEN discover.F.SG do take-PFV.F.SG
' Columbus discovered America. '
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Notice there is no ‘up’ or ‘down’ that could be used for the translation of 4:52 and
therefore the translations of 4:52 and 4:53 look the same, but by now we have come to
understand that the attention in 4:53 is on the result of America having been discovered.
Both sentences are grammatical but the purpose of 4:52 is to inform of the discovery and
the purpose of 4:53 is to highlight a state of affair in the past, in which Columbus has just
discovered America and is waiting or wanting to do something else, as a consequence.
Hook acknowledges several other contexts in which sentences like 4:53 are grammatical,
namely if the event is expected, intended or foreseen—which is also the next
environment that we examine.
4: RCS CANNOT BE USED FOR EVENTS THAT LACK PRIOR KNOWLEDGE:
A classic example of this kind of environment is a context in which there is a
knock at the door. If someone goes to the door and another person who did not get to see
the arriving party asks ‘who came?’ it will have different meanings if an SV is used vs.
an RC.
(4:54)
کون آیا؟
kaun aa-yaa?
who come-PFV.M.SG
' Who came? '
(4:55)
؟ آگیا کون
kaun aa ga-yaa?
who come go-PFV.M.SG
' Who came? '
In the case of 4:54 the question is a genuine one, the asking person wants to know
the identity of the person(s) at the door, but in the case of 4:55, the identity is still
unknown, but the attention is on the result of someone having come at all. The sentence
4:55 is frequently uttered with interjections such as musiibat ‘trouble’ or dekhe;n to ‘lets
see’, and means that regardless of who came (it is not important to the speaker) the fact
that anyone has come at all, is important and is unpleasant or pleasant depending on the
78
interjection. Sentence 4:55, also identified by Hook, can also be said if the identity of the
person is known and the question is rhetorical because the attention is on the fact that
they have come and not who they are. For example, a grandfather might utter 4:55 after
seeing his grandson coming his way as in ‘look who has come’. This environment clearly
establishes that the result of having arrived is paid attention to, when an RC is used and
an SV is used for the ‘normal’ meaning of the question of the identity of the unknown
person.
Another example of unknown events is natural calamities such as earthquakes and
floods. An SV is used if the news of the calamity is important, but an RC might be used if
the identity of the calamity is not as important as the fact that it came and caused damage
or other consequences.
5: RESULT CLAUSES USE RCS:
Nowhere is the ‘resultiveness’ of the RC more prominent than in result clauses.
Hook has identified several such environments in which only RCs can be used and SVs
are discouraged. The reason is quite obvious: RCs draw attention to the result and
therefore are favored in clauses that mention the result of an act based on an action
described in another clause in the sentence. Recall that an SV is the unmarked category,
so their use in result clauses is not necessarily ungrammatical, just less desirable because
choices that are more appropriate are available in the language. Example of result clauses
are clauses that occur after phrases such as ‘thus the result was’, ‘so much so that’,
‘finally’, ‘until’ and ‘til’. These phrases, when explicitly talking about the result of an
event, prefer RCs to SVs. 39
Urdu utilizes a construction in which a cause is introduced in the first clause with
phrases such as jese hii ‘as soon as’ or ‘no sooner than’ and and a result is announced in
39 Results are often conveyed as ‘states’, but technically speaking an ‘action’ can also be a result. Hence,
while ‘the result was that I got hit’ is more common in Urdu, one can always say that ‘the result was that he
hit me’.
79
the second clause. Therefore, it is customary to use SV in the first clause and RC in the
second clause:
(4:56)
/ ؟گرا گر گیادرخت آگئ جیسے ہی آندھی آئ/؟
jese=hii aandhii aa-’ii / ?aa ga’ii
as soon as tornado.F.SG come-PFV.F.SG / ?come go- PFV.F.SG
dara.kht gir ga-yaa /?gir-aa
tree.M.SG fall go-PFV.M.SG /?fall-PFV.M.SG
' As soon as the tornado came, the tree fell. '
As always, it must be noted that depending on the construction and context it may
be possible to use SVs and RCs in either or both clauses. However the fact that majority
of the time we use SV for cause and RC for result, clearly paints RC as a result-oriented
verb construction.
6: “VERY FIRST” AND “VERY LAST” CLAUSES FAVOR SVS OVER RCS:
Another environment identified by Hook, which favors SV is the ‘very first’ and
‘very last’ clauses. However, the examples that he presented for this environment had the
subject emphasized. In such sentences where the subject is emphasized, using an RC
creates a competition between the attentions and if an alternate interpretation is not
available as in the case of hii marker, the sentence is rendered pragmatically odd. Hence
the example “Armstrong was the first in the history of mankind to reach the surface of the
moon” (Hook 1977) is poised to put emphasis on Armstrong being the first person and
will compete with an RC in terms of attention given to Armstrong (the subject) or the fact
that he stepped on the moon (the result). Hook’s next example puts even more emphasis
on the subject “I am the last man who has seen him alive.” Here ‘the last man’ is severed
from the sentence with a ‘who has’ adjunct clause. Using an RC for ‘seen’ would
definitely create a confusion in terms of where to shift attention. Let us examine the
actual example given by Hook (1977):
80
(4:57)
دیکھ لیا میں آخری آدمی ہوں جس نے اسے زندہ دیکھا /٭
me;n aa.khrii aadmii huu;n jis=ne
1.SG last man.M.SG be.PRS.1.SG who=ERG
us=e zindaa dekh-aa / *dekh li-yaa
3.SG=ACC alive see-PFV.M.SG / see take-PFV.M.SG
' I am the last person who saw him alive.40 '
The external argument ‘the last person’ is emphasized (fronted) in the sentence
and therefore demands attention. If we use RC, then the attention has to be on the
resultant state of that person having seen someone alive. This creates a conflict that
cannot be reinterpreted or resolved in any way and makes the sentence ungrammatical.
The issue is not with the concept of ‘very first’ and ‘very last’, which makes the use of an
RC undesirable; it is the context in which these clauses are often used with extra
emphasis. If the ‘very first’ or ‘very last’ clause is used normally, it will generate
grammatical sentences with RCs, albeit with a different meaning (obviously) than their
SV counterpart.
(4:58)
دیکھ لیاسب سے آخری آدمی نے اسے زندہ دیکھا /
Sab se aa.khrii aadmii=ne us=e
all from last man.M.SG=ERG he=ACC
zindaa dekh-aa / dekh li-yaa
alive see-PFV.M.SG / see take-PFV.M.SG
' The very last man saw him alive '
The SV version of 4:58 is a reportive statement that ‘the very last man saw him
alive’ as opposed to any one else. The RC version of the sentence, on the other hand,
draws attention to the result of the event that the state of affairs, after the very last man
saw him alive, was of importance. It should be noted that if the purpose of the ‘very first’
or ‘very last’ clause is to emphasize the nature of the information about the subject, then
using an RC would fail to achieve that purpose. On the other hand, if the ‘very first’ and
40 For some reason Hook’s translation was “I’m the last man to have seen him alive.” My translation is
closer to the actual meaning.
81
‘very last’ is an unimportant detail of the sentence whose attention is on the result
achieved, it will make good use of an RC in the sentence.
7: ADVERBS SUCH AS ‘TIMES’ AND ‘ITERATIONS’ PREFER SVS TO RCS:
Hook notes that baar ‘times’ or dafaa ‘instance’ prefer the use of SV. Let us
examine this environment using an SV and an RC:
(4:59)
دے دیے میں نے ھانی کو تین بار پیسے دیے/
mai;n=ne haanii=ko tiin baar pais-e
1.SG=ERG Haani.M.SG=ACC three times money.M.PL
di-ye / de di-ye
give-
PFV.M.PL
/ give give-
PFV.M.PL
' I gave Haani (some) money three times. '
The sentence using SV has the reportive meaning of the sentence. The fact that
‘three times’ is mentioned, it seems that it is an important piece of information (any
specific quantity or number mentioned in a sentence tends to draw attention), an SV is a
better choice for 4:59. However, given the context, an RC is not ungrammatical either. If
the context is that I had promised Haani to give him money three times and therefore I
gave him the money three times, an RC can be used to draw attention to the fact that I
kept my promise.
8: RCS CANNOT BE NEGATED IN GENERAL:
RCs do not simply represent a positively resulted event; they also guarantee that
event to have produced a result in the time and world in which the action took place (or
takes place). In general, we can question, negate or cast doubt on the world in which the
action took place or cancel the effect of the action and result produced through the
function of RC later in time or negate the existence of specific arguments of RC (as long
as they are replaced by some other arguments.) However, the RC itself resists all
negations and cancellations in the time and world in which the action takes place in the
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sense that whenever an RC is used, some event takes place or at least implied. Let us look
at some examples to see how this explanation helps us understand the various ‘negations’
used with RCs.
In example 4:60 when we try to put nahii;n before the RC, rather than scoping on
the entire RC it seems to scope over aam and we end up negating not the following RC
but the preceding object. So the interpretation is that ‘it is not the mango that he has eaten
up, (say, it is the banana)’.
(4:60)
ہے( کھا لیاہے )کیل کھا لیا ھانی نے آم نہیں
haanii=ne aam nahii;n khaa li-yaa
Haani.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG not eat take-PFV.M.SG
hai (kelaa khaa li-yaa hai)
be.PRS.SG (banana eat take-PFV.M.SG be.PRS.SG)
' It is not (a/the) mango that Haani has eaten up, (he has eaten up (a/the) banana.) '
Hook mentions that an RC used in the future imperative can also be negated.
(4:61)
جانا نہ بھولتم مجھے
tum mujh-e bhuul na jaa-naa
2 1.OBL.SG=ACC forget not go-INF.M.SG
' Do not forget me! '
At first glance, it appears from the translation that the entire RC is negated, but a
closer look reveals that similar to 3:13 in chapter 3, only a portion of RC is negated even
if the other part of the sentence is unspoken (it is assumed that something else may be
done only forgetting should not). A total negation of the entire event is possible only if na
precedes the entire construction. As it happens, there is a special negative particle mat
used for imperatives in Urdu. This particle can precede the entire RC construction as in
mat bhuul jaanaa. However, as soon as we do that, it seems to scope over mujhe and the
interpretation is that ‘you may forget others, just do not forget me’. This point is
important for several other seemingly ‘negated’ RCs in the language. Pragmatically
speaking there are instances when speakers need to negate a situation and imply that
either something less drastic or quite the opposite has happened instead. In such cases,
RC is used for the implied meaning because using SV, without appropriate stresses, will
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simply negate the situation and not make the desired implication. Example of such an
utterance is given below:
(4:62)
ہے کر لیھانی نے سلطنت نہیں فتح
haani=ne sultanat nahii;n fatah kar l-ii hai
Haani.M.SG=ERG empire.F.SG not conquer do take-PFV.F.SG be.PRS.SG
' Haani has not conquered an empire. '
A more appropriate translation of 4:62 would be ‘it is not like Haani has
conquered an empire’, which implies that Haani has done something less dramatic.
Sentences such as 4:62 are common in the Urdu language. One can use an SV with
phonological stress on the NP before the negation or an RC in such a construction with or
without the stress on the NP. Both will imply that the negation is with the NP, not the
verb. So between the two possible interpretations ‘[empire not] [conquer]’ and ‘[empire]
[not conquer]’, an SV can represent both with appropriate phonological stresses, but an
RC can only render the former meaning. Thus the RC necessarily implies that something
else has been ‘conquered’ or at least won or achieved. A plausible context for 4:62 is that
Haani has won a recent municipal election and the sentence implies that it is a small win
and not quite comparable to conquering an empire. This implication, I believe, is the
direct result of the certainty of the result produced by RC. It should be noted that even in
such instances, RCs could be used only if the implied context is compatible with the
negated NP. If Haani has just turned eighteen, then using 4:62 will not make sense
because 4:62 indicates a substantial achievement and the implication requires something
else that Haani may have achieved through effort (and turning eighteen is not quite an
achievement through effort).
Other negations mentioned by Hook such as expressions of fear also fall in the
same category, only part of the RC is negated, never the entire RC. A curious case in
negated RC is the use of the negative particle na in a jab-tak ‘until’ clause. The
observation (Hook 1977) is that in a jab-tak clause, both the RC as well as the SV may be
grammatically used with na ‘not’. It is understood that this ‘not’ is not necessarily
negating the RC, but it is there none-the-less. Let us examine the data given by Hook
(1977):
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(4:63)
واپس نہ آنا مل جائیںجب تک پیسے نہ ملیں/
jab tak paise na mil-e;n / mil jaa-e;n
when till money.M.PL not get.found-PFV.PL /get.found go-PFV.M.PL
waapas na aa-naa
return not come-INF.M.SG
' Until you find (the) money do not return '
(lit: until money not found, return not come)
The translation only has one negative particle but the Urdu sentence has two
negative particles as can be seen in literal translation. The question is that even though
the SV or RC involved are not negated, yet there is a negative particle there to negate it.
The answer to this puzzle lies in the conditional conjunction ‘until’. In Urdu, jab tak is a
multi-purpose conjunction. A jab tak…na construction means ‘until’ in a conditional
clause. In a non-conditional clause, jab tak does not need to accompany na to mean
‘until’. The particle ‘na’ is a special negative particle with a set of presuppositions and
special functions in the Urdu language and its detailed discussion is outside the scope of
this thesis. For our purposes, in 4:63, the ‘na’ is not a negative particle and its use with
RCs does not violate the non-negatability of RCs.
Another environment mentioned in Hook’s dissertation is that of a ‘double
negative’. For example, a sentence such is ‘there is no reason to not do this’ means ‘there
is reason to do this’. The fact that RC’s can be used in a double negative sentence proves
that there is nothing syntactically stopping it from being negated, instead the restriction is
semantic/pragmatic. If one negates the existence of a possible world, then the RC can be
negated in that world because its certainty is not jeopardized (because the world in which
it does not happen is not possible).
(4:64)
جیت لے ہو ہی نہیں سکتا کہ وہ ریس نہ
ho=hii nahii;n saktaa ke vo res na jiit l-e
It:is:not:possible that 3 race not win take-SBJV.3.SG
' It is not possible that he/she does not win the race. '
The above sentence means that he/she will certainly win the race. It is both
interesting and important to note that if we change the above sentence by replacing ho hii
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nahii;n saktaa with ho saktaa hai, which indicates a possible world, the next clause will
not be able to use the RC with the negative particle na. In other words, either there is no
possible world in which an RC does not take place or there is a possible world in which
RC takes place, either way the certainty of action is unscathed in a possible world!
There is a time component in the space-time reference of RCs and the certainty of
the event having taken place. Hence, the effect of an RC may be cancelled after the
certainty of its occurring for at least a certain significant amount of time is established.
Because this ‘significant amount of time’ is not a defined concept, the grammaticality
judgments will depend on individual speakers. Under normal context, most speakers will
consider it equivocation if RC is used for an event whose effect was immediately
reversed.
(4:65)
ھانی نے آم تو کھایا پر اسے قے ہو گئ
haanii=ne aam=to khaa-yaa par use qe hog ga’ii
Haani.M.SG=ERG mango.M.SG=EMPH eat-PFV.M.SG but to:him:vomit:happened
' Haani did eat (a/the) mango but he vomited. '
(4:66)
ے قے ہو گئ پر اس کھالیا ھانی نے آم تو
aam=to khaa li-yaa par use qe hog ga’ii
mango.M.SG=EMPH eat take-PFV.M.SG but to:him:vomit:happened
' Haani did eat up (a/the) mango but he vomited. '
(4:67)
پر بعد میں اسے قے ہو گئکھالیا ھانی نے آم تو
haanii=ne khaa li-yaa par baad me;n
Haani.M.SG=ERG eat take-PFV.M.SG but later
use qe hog ga’ii
to:him:vomit:happened
' Haani did eat up (a/the) mango but later he vomited. '
In example 4:65-67, only perfective inflections are used, all verbs are completive
in nature but we see that some speakers will find 4:66 to be pragmatically odd. There are
several reasons behind this reaction from those speakers. First, a vomit is immediately
cancelling the effect of the RC event (eating) in 4:66, which is a problem because the
certainty of the event having taken place requires some significant time for which its
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effect prevailed. However, 4:66 is not entirely ungrammatical, and there are contexts
under which it can be uttered quite reasonably. The other problem with 4:66 is due to the
salience property of RC. According to the salience property, an RC is used only if the
event of having eaten the mango is significant. If it was a holy mango or a ritual, one can
see that the use of RC serves a purpose (conveying the message that an obligation was
fulfilled) but under normal circumstances it seems odd to draw attention to the results of
an event whose effect was immediately reversed. Example 4:67 will be deemed more
acceptable by many speakers because the first clause is temporally removed from the
second clause (using the adverb ‘later’) giving enough room for the result of the event in
the first clause to exist for a meaningful amount of time before it is unresulted.
Without going into the details of the work of Hook (1977), the RC’s can also be
negated under various circumstances as long as the event represented by the RC has a
provision to have taken place in a possible world whose effect prevails for a certain
amount of time. Such negations include hypothetical questions ‘if not’, rhetorical
questions ‘why not’, wish or request ‘why don’t you’ or expressions like ‘I’ll be damned
if I don’t’ etc.
9: RC’S ARE SELECTIVE WITH ADVERBS:
In his dissertation, Hook has identified several adverbs that do not prefer RC use.
Of these, only one adverb ‘hardly or quite possibly not’ cannot be used with an RC for an
obvious reason: it interferes with the certainty of the event to have taken place. Let us
look at the first such adverb mushkil se. This adverb has several meanings, one is ‘with
difficulty’ as in ‘after much effort’, and another is ‘hardly, barely or quite-possibly-not’.
(4:68)
ہے کھا لیتا وہ مشکل سے کھانا کھاتا /
vo mushkil=se khaanaa khaa-taa /khaa le-taa hai
3 barely food.M.SG eat-IPFV.M.SG eat take-
IPFV.M.SG
be.PRS.SG
' He barely eats /eats up food. '
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In the above sentence if we think of mushkil se as meaning ‘hardly or quite
possibly not’ then using RC ‘eat take’ will not be grammatical, but if we use it in the
sense ‘with great effort’ it can be used with RC. Other adverbs mentioned in this regard
are ‘somehow or other’, but contrary to what Hook’s informants were able to suggest,
such adverbs are freely used with RC’s albeit carry slightly different meanings (as
expected):
(4:69)
مل گۓ لے دے کرتین چار گھنٹے سونے کو ملے /
le de kar tiin chaar ghan.t-e sone ko
somehow or the other three four hours-M.PL sleep.INF.OBL for
mil-e /mil ga-e
got.found-PFV.M.PL got.found go-PFV.M.PL
' Somehow or other three or four hours became available to sleep.' 41
The SV version of 4:69 draws attention to the (insufficient) number of hours that
were available to sleep, whereas the RC version (mil ga’e) communicates that whether
these hours were less or more, they were none-the-less obtained. A possible context for
RC version would be if people were negotiating time to sleep and the choice was between
no time to sleep and only a few hours to sleep. In such a case, an RC verb will
appropriately draw attention to the fact that at least some hours were made available and
it is their availability (result of the action) which is important.
As mentioned earlier the adverb shaayad hii and mushkil se, which have a
tendency to mean ‘quite possibly not’, are not favored by RCs at all because such adverbs
directly cast doubt on the event represented by RC and therefore interfere with the
certainty of these events to have produced a result. Thus, sentences like 4:70 are
categorically ungrammatical with RCs:
41 le de kar literally means ‘after give and take’
88
(4:70)
٭کھا لیگی ۓگی/ماریا شاید ہی آم کھا
maaria shaayad=hii aam
Maria.F.SG=ERG possibly:not mango.M.SG
khaa-egii /*khaa l-egii
eat-FUT.F.SG / eat take-
FUT.F.SG
' Maria will quite possibly not eat (a/the) mango/*eat up (a/the) mango. '
10: THE SECOND VERB OF AN RC MODIFIES THE METHOD OF ACTION:
There are many examples of data provided in literature (Butt & Gueder 2003,
Singh 1996, Mohanan 1994 etc.) of meanings associated with RCs that are not
semantically encoded in the RC but contextually obtained by the speaker. Past literature
assumes that each small letter v adds a specific semantic meaning to an RC. Thus
Mohanan (1994) insists that pii .daalaa ‘drink put’ is an intensive or violent version of
simple act of drinking, Singh’s (1996) paper explains how ‘eat take’ used with a non-
specific quantity of cake still means the entire cake and not ‘some portion’ of the cake.
Butt & Gueder have continued the tradition and quoted similar examples from past
literature and Butt (1995) has attempted to classify the second verbs (or light verbs) based
on their specific semantic additions to the first verb.
I propose that the ‘semantic’ information encoded in an RC depends not only on
the v but also on the context and the verb stem Vs used. Thus, it may not be accurate to
associate each v with a specific meaning that it imparts to the Vs it combines with, when
in fact such meanings belong to the entire RC as well as to the context under which it is
used.
If the RC shifts the attention of the speaker to the result of an action, then it is
quite possible that this attention is translated into salience of the result in the discourse.
After all, if something is highlighted or brought to attention, it is quite natural to think
that it is of some importance. This contextual salience is, in part, responsible for the
various interpretations of RCs in different contexts. In isolation, without context, these
RCs will have a very wide range of interpretations, as wide as the imagined contexts of
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the various informants who are asked. Hook mentions a verb bataanaa ‘to tell’ which
seems to have no change in semantic meaning between its SV and RC bataa denaa. ‘to
tell give.’ The vector verb (a verb used to point to a direction, in this case from subject to
someone else) denaa adds very little meaning when used with a verb ‘to tell’, which is
always directed to someone else anyway, and is never used for telling something to one’s
own self. However the same verb denaa when used with the verb stem ro ‘cry’ will mean
that the crying was outwardly performed (as opposed to silent inward crying) and had a
sudden inception point. In case of bataa denaa there is no sudden inception interpretation
available. Thus, the semantic contribution of denaa depends on the verb stem it combines
with and it does not have a specific and fixed semantic contribution in all RCs in which it
participates. Similarly, Butt (1995, 2001) has attributed sudden inception with pa.rnaa
‘fall’ when used as a v. The example furnished in her work, for this meaning of pa.rnaa,
is the ungrammaticality of the RC bhuul pa.rnaa ‘forget fall’ of a story (Butt 1995). It is
quite true that one cannot ‘forget fall’ a story, but one can easily ‘forget fall’ their way.42
Thus, when we examine RCs we have to take into account not just the compatibility of Vs
and v that combine to form the RC, but also the compatibility of the internal argument of
the VP featuring the RC.
The case of ‘eat taking’ the cake was discussed in previous chapter where we
examined how and why the notion of completely eating a cake is associated with ‘take’
when in fact it is the ‘cake’ which gives this context to the sentence and not ‘take’.
Simply put if we make the following sentence, it does not mean that Ram ate all the food
in the pantry or entire lunch in his lunchbox:
(4:71)
کھا لیارام نے لنچ
raam=ne lanc khaa li-yaa
Ram.M.SG=ERG lunch.M.SG eat take-PFV.M.SG
' Ram ate lunch. '
42 Rastaa bhuul pa.rnaa ‘to forget fall the way’ is a common idiomatic expression for a situation when
someone comes to a place they normally do not frequent. In other words, they forget their way for an
instant and end up in a place they normally do not visit.
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This is because khaa liyaa has nothing to do with the quantity of lunch being
eaten, yet when used with ‘cake’ it certainly seems to mean the entire cake was eaten.
This meaning is not something that can be attributed to Vs khaa or the little v liyaa,
instead it is associated with the context created by the internal argument ‘cake’. The same
is true for pii .daalaa ‘drink put’:
(4:72a)
ھانی نے دوا پی
haani=ne davaa pii
Haani.M.SG=ERG medicine.F.SG drink.PFV.F.SG
(4:72b)
پی لی ھانی نے دوا
haani=ne davaa pii l-ii
Haani.M.SG=ERG medicine.F.SG drink take-PFV.F.SG
(4:72c)
پی ڈا لی ھانی نے دوا
haani=ne davaa pii .daal-ii
Haani.M.SG=ERG medicine.F.SG drink put-PFV.F.SG
(4:72d)
پی بیٹھا ھانی دوا
haani davaa pii bei.th-aa
Haani.M.SG=ERG medicine.F.SG drink sit-PFV.M.SG
' Haani took the medicine. '
Although Mohanan (1994) has furnished the translation as ‘downed the medicine’
for 4:72c it may not be the only meaning possible. In different contexts 4:72c will mean
anything from ‘violently took the medicine’, ‘took the medicine to get it over with’,
‘finally took the medicine (not necessarily with violent action)’ and ‘took the medicine
against the wishes of the speaker or Haani himself’ etc. Similarly some of the meanings
of 4:72d include ‘took the medicine in error’ and ‘inevitably took the medicine’ etc. If we
were to change the object from ‘medicine’ to ‘savings’ and Vs from ‘drink’ to ‘lose’ we
may get a subtle variation in the meaning compared to 4:72d:
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(4:73)
ا لٹا بیٹھ ھانی پونجی
haani puunjii lu.taa be.th-aa
Haani.M.SG=ERG savings.F.SG lose sit-PFV.M.SG
' Haani lost (his) savings.
Among others, a translation for 4:73 can be that Haani lost his savings due to his
own mistakes. It is clear from the examples that it is hard to pinpoint the exact flavor of a
translation when an RC is used, especially if there is no context given. However, we may
say that in general, be.th will represent an act that was not planned and .daal will
represent an act with some sense of decisiveness. It should be noted that both .daal and
be.th could only occur with transitive Vs43. It should also be noted that pa.rnaa, as
discussed before, is not associated with lack of decisiveness, it is instead associated with
sudden inception of an act and is mostly used with intransitive verbs (Agha 1994).
11: RCS RENDER SPECIFICITY TO THE OBJECT IN THE SENTENCE:
Similar to the observation of prior knowledge, Agha (1994) and Singh (1998) also
attribute definitiveness or specificity of the internal object used in sentence with an RC.
(4:74)
سارہ نے بلای دیکھی saaraa=ne billii dekh-ii
Sarah.F.SG=ERG cat.F.SG see-PFV.F.SG
' Sarah saw (a/the) cat. '
(4:75)
دیکھ لیسارہ نے بلای saaraa=ne billii dekh l-ii
Sarah.F.SG=ERG cat.F.SG see take-PFV.F.SG
' Sarah saw (a/the) cat. '
According to Agha and Singh, sentence 4:74 is about ‘a cat’ but 4:75 is about ‘the
cat’.
43 When be.th is used with intransitive Vs it creates a serial verb construction (and not an RC,) such as u.th
be.thnaa ‘getting up and sitting up (from a lying position)’ etc.
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I have glossed both 4:74 and 4:75 as ‘a/the cat’ because in Urdu there are no articles and
in the absence of the specificity marker ko44, NPs can be interpreted as either specific or
not specific. It is true that without any context 4:75 does seem to be about a specific cat,
just like without context 3:25 seemed to be about eating the entire cake. However, this
interpretation cannot be attributed to semantic manipulation of the RC. Instead, this
interpretation is pragmatically associated with the salience of the result produced by the
RC, which demands context. RC does not make the object specific, all an RC does is put
emphasis on the result. A listener, then, has the choice to interpret that emphasis in any
way he/she can. One such interpretation (in the absence of any context,) of this emphasis
is manifested as the specificity of the object. However, given the context, this
interpretation can change quite easily. Let us examine the following scenario:
Sara: “I must see a cat today or my day will be jinxed.”
Friend: “Let’s go out to spot any cat in the street then.”
Both Sarah and her friend go out in the street and soon Sarah spots a cat. Her friend
walks into the house and relays the news to Sarah’s mother with the sentence 4:75
repeated below:
saaraa=ne billii dekh l-ii
Sarah.F.SG=ERG cat.F.SG see take-PFV.F.SG
' Sarah saw (a/the) cat. '
In this context, it does not matter which cat she saw, it only matters that the result
of seeing a cat was obtained. Hence, Sarah’s friend can use the sentence even when a
specific cat was not observed. In contrast, using ko with billi ‘cat’ will mean ‘the cat’,
regardless of the verb form used (SV or RC), see example 4:76 below:
44 Ko always follows an NP and is used as the dative and accusative case marker, specificity/ animacy
marker and a postpostion ‘to’. When a normally unmarked accusative case is marked, it implies
specificity/animacy.
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(4:76)
دیکھ لیا سارہ نے بلای کو دیکھا/saaraa=ne billii=ko dekh-aa /dekh li-yaa
Sarah.F.SG=ERG cat.F.SG=ACC see -PFV.M.SG /see take-PFV.M.SG
' Sarah saw the cat. '
The specificity of the object, thus, is not a function of the verb form whether RC
or SV. However, this specificity can be one of the pragmatic interpretations of the RCs
given their property of shifting attention and providing salience to the result of the event.
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CHAPTER 5- CONCLUSION
5.1 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
This work was aimed at describing the function of a particular Urdu verb-verb
construction, notated [Vsv], in which stem of the content verb combines with a second
inflected verb used in a semantically bleached sense. We looked at two main kinds of [V-
sv] constructions, non-resultive and resultive (RC). The non-resultive [Vsv] constructions
were studied to demonstrate the ways in which they differ semantically and pragmatically
from the RCs as well as from each other. Our focus was on RCs, which were found to
have five distinct properties: 1) They represent a telic event 2) The event is certain to
have produced a result 3) Attention is shifted to this result 4) The result has salience in
discourse and 5) The semantic content of the content verb is modified. Prior attempts
have been made to classify Vs based on compatible v’s it will accept (Agha 1994), or to
identify semantic properties of v’s based on compatible Vs it will accept (Butt 1995).
While such classifications are needed for computer modeling, the exact grammatical
function of these constructions must be determined before any computational model can
represent them.
Scholars have given much emphasis to the v in these constructions. It is believed
that v controls the grammatical case of the external argument (Mahajan 2012) and that v
adds the semantic content to the content verb Vs (Butt 1995; Carnikova 1989). I have
presented data on these constructions to show that while, in perfective aspects, the
grammatical case of the external argument will be nominative if the v is intransitive;
however, the relationship between transitive v and ergative case is not as predictable.
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Using data, I have also concluded, beyond any doubt, that the case assigning property of
v is not related to the notion of volitionality or conscious choice in any way. We also used
data to determine that the modified semantic content of a [Vsv] construction is not a
product of v alone; it is associated with the entire construction including Vs and the
internal argument of the VP as well as the context in which the construction is used.
These constructions are not negatable in general and cannot be used in the
progressive aspect. We followed these two properties through a large set of data to
suggest that in addition to the event itself, its resultant state is also intricately associated
with the use RCs, either through entailment or focus or both. This state-like reading of
these constructions prevents them from being used in the progressive aspect even in the
imperfective inflections. This proposed theory also explains why these constructions
cannot be negated in the sense that no event took place, because a resultant state is clearly
highlighted with the use of RC and therefore at least some event has to have taken place.
We found that RCs can be negated in a world that is not possible, thus, their apparent
non-negatability is not due to their syntactic but semantic or pragmatic properties. We
discussed various ways of negating an RC in the indicative mood and came to the
conclusion that whenever an RC is used some event is implied to have taken place.
The various notions of ‘completeness’, ‘definitiveness’, ‘finality’, ‘emphasis’ and
‘specificity’ associated with these constructions were traced to the fact that these
construction shift the attention of the listener away from the external and internal
arguments of the VP to the result of the action. The salience of this result is responsible
for the various interpretations, which depend on the context. This attention shifting
property also explained why emphasis markers such as hii and bhii have different
meanings when used with RC compared to simple verbs (SV). The adverbs, such as
‘almost never’ or ‘quite possibly not’, which interfere with the certainty of the result of
the action represented by RCs, were found to be incompatible with these constructions as
well. In Chapter 4, we analyzed data from Urdu language to determine how the properties
of RC developed and identified in Chapter 3 are able to explain the various observed
behaviors of RC. We found that using RC in place of SV in many such situations simply
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changes the interpretation of the sentence and those interpretations can be explained
using the proposed properties of RCs.
In conclusion, an event produced by an SV acquires minor semantic information
and telicity as well as the certainty of a result when a corresponding RC is used instead.
The rest of the interpretations associated with these constructions are pragmatic in nature,
which is probably why the exact grammatical function of these constructions is so
elusive. While it is tempting to put RCs at the syntacto-semantic interface and analyze
their characteristics in isolation, I hope I have demonstrated beyond any doubt, that RCs
require a more holistic approach in order to understand their grammatical function in its
entirety.
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
My research on RCs and their functions raised more questions than I was able to
propose an answer to. Following is a partial list of those topics I was not able to explore
further due to time constraints.
- The possibility of a diachronic relationship of RC and other stem+verb
constructions with the ‘having X’ed, Y’ kind of expressions commonly used in
Urdu.
- A detailed semantic account of RCs to determine if their denotation includes
resultant state of the event or simply highlights it through entailment or other
mechanisms.
- The discourse analysis of the RCs in terms of their event marking and information
chunking properties in a discourse.
- The interaction of the emphasis markers hii, bhii and to with RCs, their semantic
modification in various aspects and moods in Urdu and their role in the formation
of Urdu quantifiers.
97
- Negation of RCs in conditional, subjunctive and imperative moods and detailed
semantic and pragmatic model of the particle ‘na’ when used with RCs.
- The syntactic, semantic and pragmatic parameters that can help classify either Vs
or v’s of an RC and their representation in a grammatical framework.
- Syntactic, semantic and pragmatic differences between the modals sak, paa and
cuk in a [Vsv] construction.
- The concept of case and case markers in Hindi-Urdu. Differentiating between
case markers and postpositions.
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APPENDIX A
MODIFIED VELTHUIS SCRIPT FOR URDU
Urdu Script
Modified Velthuis
IPA Examples in English
Examples in Urdu
VOWELS45
ا
a ʌ Bus bas ‘stop,
enough’ بس
آ
aa ɑ: Father paalaa ‘nurtured’ لاپا
ا
i ɪ Kiss kis
‘which’ کس
ی
ii i: Fees fiis ‘fees’ یس ف
ا
u ʊ Full cup ‘quiet’ چپ
’uu u: Fool phuul ‘flower و پھول
بیل ’e e: Face bel ‘vine ے
’ai æ Trap bail ‘ox ے بیل
چور o o: Bow cor ‘thief و
’au ɔ Caught kaun ‘who و کون
DIPHTHONGS
گۓ ’a’e ga’e ‘they went (m) ۓ
’a’ii ga’ii ‘she went ئ گئ
گئیں ’a’ii;n ga’ii;n ‘they went (f) ئیں
a’uu ga’uu ‘cow (archaic)’ گؤ
آ ؤں aa’uu;n gaa’uu;n shall I sing? گاؤں
’aa’o gaa’o ‘you sing اؤ گاؤ
’aa’o;n gaa’o;n ‘village آ ؤں گاؤں
CONSONANTS
’b b Bus bas ‘stop, enough ب بس
’bh bʱ bhes ‘disguise بھ بھیس
’p p Spill pin ‘pin پ پن
45 Short vowels are diacritics in Urdu script and are often not written at all.
99
پھول ’ph pʰ Pin phuul ‘flower پھ
تم ’t t tum ‘you ت،ط
’th tʰ tham ‘stop تھ تھم
ٹوٹ ’t ʈ .tuu.t ‘break. ٹ
سیٹھ ’th ʈʰ .thes ‘dent. ٹھ
جیل ’j dʒ Jail jel ‘jail ج
jh جھ dʒʱ
jhuul ‘swing’ جھول
c چ t ʃ
Staunch cal ‘walk’ چل
ch چھ t ʃ ʰ
Church chaap ‘stamp’ چھاپ
،ھہ، ح h h/ ɦ
Hand haathii ‘elephant’ ہاتھی
’kh χ .khariid ‘buy. خ خرید
’d d duur ‘far د دور
دھول ’dh dʱ dhuul ‘dust دھ
’d ɖ .dor ‘string. ڈ ڈور
’dh ɖʱ .dhuu;n.d ‘search. ڈھ نڈڈھو
’r r ras ‘nectar ر رس
’r ɽ pa.r ‘fall. ڑ پڑ
’rh ɽʱ pa.rh ‘read. ڑھ پڑھ
؛ظ؛ض؛ز
ذ
z z Zip zor ‘force’ زور
’z ʒ Measure .zaalaa ‘hail. ژ ژالہ
ث؛ص؛س s s Same seb ‘apple’ سیب
’s ʃ Shame shaam ‘evening. ش شام
’gh ɣ .ghulaam ‘servant. غ غلم
’f f Fail fel ‘fail ف فیل
’q q qasam ‘oath ق قسم
’k k Skill kaam ‘work ک کام
’kh kʰ Kite khel ‘game کھ کھیل
’g g Goal gol ‘round گ گول
100
گھول ’gh gʱ ghol ‘dissolve گھ
’l l Loot luu.t ‘loot ل لوٹ
’m m Man maar ‘hit م مار
’n n Not nahii;n ‘not ن نہیں
’n mai;n ‘I; 46 ں میں
’v ʋ Btw v & w vahaa;n ‘there و وہاں
’y j You ye ‘this ی یہ
SPECIAL
CHARACTERS47
a= ا a= faura=‘now’ فورا
u= ا
u= summu= bukmu= بكم صم
46 Used for nazalizing the preceding vowel. 47 These are optional characters that can help identify Arabic morphology.
101
APPENDIX B
PARTIAL LIST OF VERBS FREQUENTLY USED AS ‘v’ IN RESULTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS48
Urdu
Verbs
English
Translation
Sample RC Use Sample English Translation of the RC
lenaa To take ro lenaa ‘cry take’ To cry inwardly
denaa To give ro denaa ‘cry give’ To cry outwardly with an inception
point
jaanaa To go kar jaanaa ‘do go’ To do deliberately
pa.rnaa To fall bhuul pa.rnaa
‘forget fall’
To forget for an instant
be.thnaa To sit kar be.thnaa ‘do sit’ To do inadvertently
u.thnaa To rise cillaa u.thnaa ‘cry
rise’
To cry out loud with an inception
point
guzarnaa To pass kar guzarnaa ‘do
pass’
To do without thinking of
consequences
maarnaa To hit likh maarnaa ‘write
hit’
To write without any personal
interest
rakhnaa To keep kar rakhnaa ‘do
keep’
To have it done and hold that state
calnaa To walk dikhaa calnaa
‘show walk’
To show and leave the effect
behind
nikalnaa To emerge aa nikalnaa ‘come
emerge’
To come unexpectedly or
unintentionally
.daalnaa To put kar .daalnaa ‘do
put’
To do to get it over with
48I have not included auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and those verbs, which are only used for serial verb
constructions. For example, both dekhnaa ‘to see’ and dikhaanaa ‘to show’ are used in full semantic sense
and only form serial verb constructions. Similarly the verb aanaa is always used in its full semantic sense
or as an auxiliary verb showing progression, as defined by Carnikova (1989)
102
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VITA
Place of Birth:
Karachi, Pakistan
Education:
B.S in Electrical Engineering (magna cum laude)
University of Connecticut
Storrs, Connecticut
Professional Positions:
1996-2000 Electrical Engineer
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Neenah, Wisconsin
2001-2005 IT Team Leader/ Lead Engineer
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
New Milford, Connecticut
2013-2014 Writing Center Consultant
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
2014- 2015 Teaching Assistant/Primary Instructor
Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky